THE CUCKOO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20766, 8 January 1931, Page 12

THE CUCKOO.

gj r J have been much interested in the letters and article about the New Zealand cuckoo, which have appeared in your paper lately. Some time ago I was reading a book of Hudson's, the English naturalist, and was struck with his description of the English cuckoo and its habits. After describing the finding of a robin's nest with a young cuckoo in it and its two late occupants lying beneath, lie goes on to describe how he thoroughly tested the manner in which the little victims were ejected. He found that on placing any little object between the birds' shoulders or near them, it at once set up an irritation and it wriggled and teased until it had ejected it from the nest. Though the bird was only a day or two old it was extraordinary the strength it showed in getting rid of the annoyance. On reading it one almost felt that the bird was to be pitied for inheriting this instinct, instead of being so much condemned. I should like to know what a cuckoo's egg is like, never having seen one. I have heard that a cuckoo can change the colour of its egg to that of the bird of the nest it lays in, but this must be a fallacy I think! Nature Lover.