Young Cuckoo An interesting story of the devotion shown
to a young cuckoo by its loster-parcnts was sent to me from a correspondent living in Hampshire, who describes how her daughter discovered their terrier watching something at the bottom of the hedge and on investiga- tion came smolt a half-fledged cuckoo. ' She picked it up but couldn't find the nest.' the letter continues. ' We consulted as to what could be 'done,
of hedge-sparrmvs, iff were get
in a nearb irCQ. 1 suggested that we should try making a nest and No she found an old fly-catcher's nest and lined a punnet with that and some bits of hay. We put the punnet on top of the hedge and placed a square of wood above the nest to shade the bird from rain or very hot sun. The cuckoo settled „ down very happily. We had little hope that
the foster-parents would find it and feed it, but the next morning there they were, flying backwards and forwards to feed it and some- times carrying away the droppings from the nest. This writ on for about ten days and we often went to look at it and had our lingers pecked if we touched the nest. We decided one day to try to get a photograph, but on the following morning the bird had flown. We knew it was all right, for one of our party saw it flying clumsily from a tree across the hedge.'
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