fed; at length, however, it was observed that the young Thrush was
employed in feeding it, the Cuckoo opening its mouth and sitting on
the upper perch, and making the Thrush hop down to fetch food up.
One day, when it was thus expecting its food in this way, the Thrush
seeing a worm put into the cage could not resist the temptation - of
eating it, upon which the Cuckoo immediately descended from its
perch, and attacking the Thrush, literally tore one of its eyes quite
out, and then hopped back: the poor Thrush felt itself obliged to
take up some food in the lacerated state it was in. The eve healed
in course of time, and the Thrush continued its occupation as before,
till the Cuckoo was full grown.'
Mr. Jesse too, in his ' Gleanings in Natural History,' relates the
following circumstance as having occurred at Arburv, in Warwickshire,
the seat of Francis Newdigatc, Esq., the account having been written
down at the time by a lady who witnessed it:—'In the early part of
the summer of 1828, a Cuckoo, having previously turned out the eggs
from a Water-YA agtail's nest, which was built in a small hole in a
garden wall at Arbury, deposited her own egg in their place. When
the egg was hatched, the young intruder was fed by the Water-Wagtails,
till he became too bulky for his confined and narrow quarters,
and in a fidgetty tit he fell to the ground. In this predicament he
was found by the gardener, who picked him up, and put him into a
wire cage, which was placed on the top of a wall, not far from the
place of his birth. Here it was expected that the Wagtails would
have followed their supposititious offspring with food, to support it in
its imprisonment; a mode of proceeding which would have had nothing
very uncommon to recommend it to notice. But the odd part of the
story is, that the bird which hatched the Cuckoo never came near it;
but her place was supplied b y a Hedge-Sparrow, who performed her
part diligently and punctually, by bringing food at very short intervals
from morning till evening, till its uncouth foster-child grew large,
and became full-feathered, when it was suffered to escape, and was
seen no more, li nan p o s s i b l y be suggested that a mistake has been
made with regard to the sort of bird which hatched the Cuckoo, and
that the same bird which fed it, namely, the Hedge-Sparrow, hatched
the egg. If this had been the case, there would have been nothing
extraordinary in the circumstance; but the Wagtail was too often
seen on her nest, both before the egg was hatched, and afterwards,
feeding the young bird, to leave room for any scepticism on that point;
and the Sparrow was seen feeding it in the cage afterwards by many
members of the family daily.'
In 'The Naturalist,' old series, No. 16, page 7, Mr. W. H. Bcnshed
relates an instance of two Wagtails feeding a young Cuckoo, which
had been taken from their nesi ; ami on its being placed in a hive,
where they could visit it, 'delight and joy really appeared in all their
actions; they rushed to and fro in the air, flying about the hive, and
hovering near it.' At the same time, on seeing the Cuckoo, Swallows
gave their note of alarm, and their young flew off; a Wren
approached, and shewed some signs of curiosity; and a Robin, who
seemed disposed for hostilities, was attacked and driven off by the
Wagtails.
Again, ' I t is wonderful,' savs Dr. Tenner, *to see the extraordinary
exertions of the young Cuckoo, when it is two or three days old,
if a bird be put into the nest with it that is too weighty for it to
lift out. In this state it seems ever restless and uneasy. Iîut this
disposition for turning out its companions begins to decline from
the time it is two or three, till it is about twelve days old, when,
as far as I have hitherto seen, it ceases. Indeed, the disposition for
throwing out the egg appears to cease a few days sooner; for I have
frequently seen the young Cuckoo, after it had been hatched nine
or ten days, remove a nestling that had been placed in the nest
with it, when it suffered an egg, put there at the same time, to
remain unmolested. The singularity of its shape is well adapted to
these purposes; for different from other newly-hatched birds, its back,
from the shoulders downwards, is very broad, with a considerable
depression in the middle. This depression seems formed by nature
for the design of giving a more secure lodgment to an egg, or a
young bird, when the young Cuckoo is employed in removing either
of them from the nest. When it is about twelve days old, this cavity
is quite filled up; and then the back assumes the shape of nestling
birds in general.'
The young Cuckoo is for the most part hatched before the eggs
of its foster-parent, if any have been left to be incubated, and in
the latter case it loses no time in asserting its usurped rights, hut
generally on the very day after it is hatched its might takes the
place of right, and one by one the true-born birds are thrown eut,
to be killed by flu- fall, or by any other mishap that may befal
them. If it should happen that one or more of the little birds should,
by some means or other, be preserved in the nest, their parent
feeds them and the interloper with the like attention; making it to
appear that she cannot discriminate between them: ' Tros Tyrhisve'
share equally her maternal care; and this even after leaving the
nest, both on the ground and in trees. A Iiobin has been known
so devoted hi its attention that it came to feed out of a person's