A6 The Cuckoo. 
direction from whence the notes spring. It is generaily 
thought. by those who do not know it to be a small 
bird ; on the contrary, it is a bird measuring in width 
twenty-four inches: by such people as these, it is often 
taken for a hawk. It is a solitary bird, in the strict 
sense of the word—never going about in flocks, neither 
does it pair. It frequents woods, hedges, and planta- 
tions for the purpose of finding food: on its first 
arrival here, it feeds on beetles and other insects; but 
when caterpillars are plentiful, it prefers them, espe- 
cially the hairy ones. 
This bird that is looked upon with such welcome 
never makes any nest, nor does much, if anything, 
towards the maintenance of its young. The female 
lays one egg in another bird’s nest—generally that of 
the hedge sparrow, titlark, yellow ammer, redstart, 
whitethroat, linnet, greenfinch, chaffinch, wren, or wag- 
tail: of these it prefers the hedge sparrow’s to any 
other. When the young Cuckoo is hatched—should 
there be an infant brood in the same nest—it begins 
as soon as it has strength to get the young one on its 
back, and then raises it to the top of the nest, where 
it topples the poor little unfortunate rightful owner 
over. Should there be more than one young hedge 
