The California Cuckoo 
builder. The interpretation (which is my own) is this: The Cuckoo 
finding a completed but still unoccupied nest of the Mourning Dove 
deposited her own eggs therein. Whether she actually intended at this 
time to impose upon the 
Dove, we do not know— 
perhaps the Cuckoo did 
not know—and that she 
may not have known or 
cared is precisely the 
point of interest in a 
study of incipient para¬ 
sitism. The Dove, 
knowing the nest to be 
rightfully hers, although 
her own hour had not 
yet come, covered it suf¬ 
ficiently to start devel¬ 
opmental processes in 
the Cuckoo’s eggs. The 
deposition of her own 
eggs followed in due 
course; and having an 
instinct to cover them 
for a sufficient time, she 
ignored the premature 
arrival of the derelicts, 
Meanwhile, the rightful 
mother of the future foundlings, seeing that the complaisant Dove was will¬ 
ing to undertake an arduous duty in her stead, took herself off comfortably 
to caterpillar-hunting, and presently forgot the whole episode. In some 
such way, at least, the ancient wrong-doing of the Cuckoo began. 
It might fare ill for other song-birds if the Cuckoo abounded; but 
this much is sure, the advent of the Cuckoo would be a benison, in his own 
right, to the farmer. This testimony from an eastern author 1 is apropos: 
“Few birds are of so much service to the farmer. Especially are the 
fruit growers and nursery-men its debtors. In early spring they love the 
orchard. I have known them to destroy every tent caterpillar ( Clisio - 
campa americana) in a badly infested orchard and tear up all the nests 
in half a day. While they may have eaten some caterpillars, out of most 
of them the juices were squeezed and the hairy skin dropped to the 
ground. Almost every watchful fruit grower has had a similar experi- 
Taken in Los Angeles County Photo by Antonin Jay 
NEST AND EGGS OF CALIFORNIA CUCKOO 
and neglected to feed them before they perished. 
1 Amos W. Butler, in “The Birds of Indiana." 
