“Why,” said the Rook, “the cuckoos have the impudence, the audacity, to drop them in the nest of 61 some other bird, any nest that takes their fancy. And that is not all. Not only does the cuckoo lay its egg in a stranger’s nest, but the unfortunate bird whose nest he has chosen has not only to sit on his egg, and hatch his great gawkey young one, but has also to feed it, and rear it till it can take care of itself. Nice job it is too,” said the Rook with disgust. “Then they are so knowing––ay, they’re clever birds! Why they never lay their eggs in the nests of any of the Finches, because they are seed-feeding birds, and the cuckoos know full well that their young ones would starve, because a seed-feeding bird wouldn’t be able to rear them. Therefore they always choose the nests of the insect-feeding birds, and they never make a mistake. I wish they would sometimes, then there would be a few less of them! Those little pied wagtails, that you were watching on the lawn just now, often have the honour thrust upon them of hatching and rearing a young cuckoo, as do also the hedge sparrow and the reed warbler. The cuckoos are such cowards too,” continued the Rook, “that they sometimes lay their eggs in the poor little nest of quite a small bird who can’t even remonstrate with, much less fight them. Last Spring a vile cuckoo 62 actually laid her egg in a wren’s nest, and the two poor little wrens had to hatch and rear the young monster. You may fancy what hard work it was,––it was nearly the death of them!”
The Blackbird groaned sympathetically, for he remembered his own labours in that line. After a last glance at the kingfisher, the cuckoo, and the winding stream, the two friends flew farther on, over “flowery meads” and shining woods. The hedges were purple with marshmallow and vetch, while in other places the blue heads of the succory, and the pink and white briar roses were luxuriant, not to speak of the pale bindweed which clung so affectionately round the slender stems of the hazels.
The pair of friends alighted for a moment to gaze at all this summer wealth.
“I do wish it could always be summer,” sighed the Blackbird.
“You’d soon get very tired of it if it were,” retorted the Rook, “and you would not value the sunshine and flowers half so much if you always had them.”
The Rook.
“Perhaps not,” said the Blackbird, gazing rather 63 sentimentally at the closing blossoms of the convolvulus, “perhaps not, but the flowers are very lovely.”
“Yes,” said the Rook, gravely; “they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet we are assured that even the great King Solomon in all his glory ‘was not arrayed like one of these.’ The great God is over all His works, friend Blackbird; nothing, however small or however insignificant it may be, is overlooked or forgotten by the Creator.”