The Ways of a 
Young Cuckoo. 
(209) THE BIRD WORLD. 
The Ways of a Young Cuckoo. 
It is not often that one gets the chance 
to notice the ways and manners of a 
young Cuckoo after it has left its nest. 
The bird is easy enough to watch as the 
sole, squab, self-satisfied inmate of a 
poor Robin’s or Hedge Sparrow’s nest, 
but, once the plumage is grown, the bird 
seems to disappear into the “Ewigkeit” 
destined to be transmogrified, in the 
opinion of some, into a Hawk and the 
terror of small birds. Occasionally, 
indeed, birds are deceived about its ap¬ 
pearance and really do follow and scold 
it. However, this year the writer had 
an opportunity of watching a young 
Cuckoo off and on for three weeks after 
its first nursery days— i.e., from July 1 
to July 21, roughly speaking—and the 
result of these observations is not at all 
in favour of the young Cuckoo’s charac¬ 
ter. A greedy humbug -it is, and nothing 
more. 
On the Garden Wall . 
Sometimes squatting on the garden 
wall, sometimes on the path, and oc¬ 
casionally between a row of currant 
bushes, the bird could be seen at almost 
any hour, early and late. Dancing 
attendance upon it were two little parent 
Robins, very rough and ragged-looking 
birds, continually feeding it. Although 
the Cuckoo could fly perfectly well, and 
therefore could, presumably, look out 
for itself, it preferred squatting down, 
making a ridiculous plaintive cry, as of 
a half-starved young Robin, and attract¬ 
ing the attention of the parent birds. 
Its great red mouth was distinctly visible 
through the binoculars as the persever¬ 
ing little Robins—who, by the way, 
seemed inordinately proud of their task 
—poked insects and worms into it with 
a skill and dapperness that argued long 
practice. 
An Appreciative Movement. 
Just as the birds approached to feed 
it, the Cuckoo squatted lower than ever, 
and fluttered its wings with a feeble sort 
of appreciative movement. If disturbed, 
the Cuckoo would betake itself to a 
hiding-place amongst the foliage of sur¬ 
rounding trees, an art it carries to a 
wonderful perfection in after life, when, 
in spring time, it is flying as a scouting 
adult from one tree-top to another—on 
one occasion, as the bird was sitting on 
a high leafy bough, a Hedge Sparrow— 
not the foster-mother—came close to it, 
and began all kinds of pranks, fluttering 
near it, as if she, too, wished to feed 
it, and the Cuckoo, as usual, opened its 
red mouth, but, apparently, nothing 
more came of this episode. The Hedge 
Sparrow might have been a foster-mother 
itself once of such a progeny, but where 
the pride and gratification at the reminis¬ 
cence thereof came in, it is difficult to 
see. All the birds in the neighbourhood 
got to know this Cuckoo, with its striped 
horizontal bars and short, swinging flight 
from one perch to another, but they never 
seemed to mistake it for a Hawk. 
Altogether a Mysterious Bird ! 
Its relationships to foster-parents and 
other birds are not cleared up yet. In 
the spring, when the adult Cuckoos 
squat closely on roads or quiet lanes, 
as a variation with a purpose from their 
tree-top performances, they seem to be 
laying the egg, which is then craftily in¬ 
troduced into the home of another bird 
by means of its bill. But can it carry 
an egg and “ cuckoo ” at the same time? 
When it “ cuckoos ” it seems to make 
the note with a kind of vibrating and 
swelling throat action. A similar action 
is that of a cooing Dove. However, 
my young Cuckoo took a sudden de¬ 
parture about July 21, to the relief, one 
would think, of the poor Robins, who 
had stuffed some hundreds, if not thou¬ 
sands, of worms and grubs (not fruit, 
apparently) into its capacious maw. 
What the bird will do between this and 
next May, all well, is known only to its 
crafty self, a secret kept even from the 
devoted foster-mother, who still haunts 
the lowly places it knows so well. Cer¬ 
tainly,, if a Cuckoo can paint its egg to 
any required colour and impose upon any 
unfortunate small bird it chooses, it is 
capable of any kind of domestic hypo¬ 
crisy. But why all this bird humbug 
and deceit ? Does the bird pick it up 
in Africa ? And does it develop slimness 
under the Southern Cross? 
