Our interest, however, in the domestic economy of the common cuckoo is not to be allowed to drop with the incubation of the egg. The perfidy of the parents seems to have cast a sombre shadow over the cradle of the offspring, an evil spell destined to bear fruit with terrible suddenness; for the young, before it is many hours old, and while yet blind and naked, perpetrates its first act of wrong-doing by committing murder! There is no case here of wilful or ignorant misrepresentation and slander, such as many of our feathered friends are made to suffer at our hands—no foolish prejudice such as has blasted the reputation of some of our most guiltless and useful of bird-citizens. The witnesses of the crime of which we speak are many and unimpeachable. The facts are as follows:—
Photo by Billington] [Queensland.
PHEASANT-CUCKOO.
The hind toe terminates in a spur-like claw; hence these cuckoos are known as Lark-heeled Cuckoos.
The parent cuckoo deposits her egg in the nest of some other bird with those of the owners thereof. All are hatched. In a few hours after the arrival of the young cuckoo the foster-brothers and -sisters invariably disappear, and are not seldom found in the immediate neighbourhood of the nest. That they must have been removed by force is certain; but this force cannot be attributed to the natural parents. The evidence of the first witnesses, therefore, was worthy of all consideration; and since their accounts have been frequently confirmed by most trustworthy observers, we must now admit the charge proved. One of the best known of these accounts is that of Mrs. Hugh Blackburn. She has given us a vivid picture of this most extraordinary of domestic tragedies. The victims in this instance were meadow-pipits. Finding a pipit's nest with a cuckoo's egg therein, she kept it carefully under observation. At one visit she found the pipits hatched, but not the cuckoo. Forty-eight hours later the cuckoo had not only arrived, but ousted his foster-brothers and -sisters, who were found lying outside the nest, but yet alive. They were replaced beside the cuckoo, which at once reopened hostilities for the purpose of maintaining its absolute possession of the nursery. This it did by burrowing under one of them, which, balanced upon its back, it proceeded to eject by climbing up the nest tail-foremost, till, reaching the brim, it could relieve itself of its burden by heaving it over the edge and down the bank. Pausing a moment, it then felt backwards with its wings to make sure the pipit was really gone, and, having satisfied itself on this point, subsided to the bottom of the nest. Next day, when the nest was visited, the remaining pipit was found outside the nest cold and dead. "But what struck me most," she writes, "was this: the cuckoo was perfectly naked, without a vestige of a feather or even a hint of feathers, its eyes were not yet opened, and its neck seemed too weak to support the weight of its head. The pipits had well-developed quills on the wings and back, and had bright eyes partially opened, yet they seemed quite helpless under the manipulations of the cuckoo, which looked a much less developed creature."
Photo by J. T. Newman] [Berkhamsted.
CUCKOO ONE DAY OLD IN HEDGE-SPARROW'S NEST.
The young bird has its mouth open, ready for all the food the foster-parents can collect.