A CUCKOO PARENT.
It happens that within a few days letters about native birds, evoked by paragraphs in the Spectator, have reached me from Queensland (where bird sanctuaries are multiplying), from several parts of India, and from South Africa, where the economic value of birds is being more thoroughly appreciated. The best book of its sort that I have seen is a delightfully illustrated volume written by Dorothy Norman and published in Durban. It is called A Bird Book for South African Children, and might give a valuable hint to an English pub- lisher. It is designed for the young, but contains a good deal of valuable information. The following cuckoo story is an example. A wagtail's nest containing a young cuckoo was taken out of the neighbouring park and put into the Durban Zoo. To the astonishment of the authorities both hen and male cuckoo, not the foster parents, found their youngster and fed it through the netting of the cage. The incident supplies a link of no little scientific value in the peculiar evolu- tion of the cuckoo's mode of domestic life.
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