THE CUCKOO. 
77 
equally known to all, is that strange unnatural pro- 
pensity, peculiar to this bird, of leaving to others the 
care of its young. Why does the Cuckoo do this ? 
Is it because it has no knowledge of building a nest ? 
Far from it, for if it chooses so to do, it can build a 
nest, and rear its young ones, as well as another ; for 
a clergyman, near Glossop in Derbyshire, not only 
saw a Cuckoo rise from its nest, built on the stump 
of a tree, hut in it found two young ones; and by 
way of ascertaining whether they were under the 
care of the real or foster-parents, he confined one of 
them to the nest, and for many days saw the old 
Cuckoo feed it as regularly and tenderly as the poor 
little bird did its monstrous nursling, which we have 
already mentioned, vol. i., p. 207 * 
To this, and a thousand other such marvellous 
instincts and habits, we have no answer to give. 
The why and the wherefore, are yet to he learned. 
But that He who gave the bird such an apparently 
unnatural habit, had His reasons for so doing, there 
can be no doubt, and it is one of the pleasing occu- 
pations and pursuits of a naturalist to use all dili- 
gence, diving as far as possible into these mysteries, 
and finding out, as far as he can, why what is ap- 
parently wrong may nevertheless he really right, a 
working together for a good end, and a fulfilment of 
one great uniform design of Perfection and Wisdom. 
In vol. i., p. 207, a curious case was mentioned of a 
Cuckoo having been fed by a Thrush of its own age. 
The bird was successfully reared, and continued in 
good health till about the period at which other 
birds of its kind were in the habit of leaving the 
country, when it began to mope, particularly during 
