hich ignored its venom would scarcely be a wise botanical
guide for indiscriminate circulation among the innocents. Think, then,
of a poetic eulogium on a bird of which the observant Gilbert could have
written:

"This proceeding of the cuckoo, of dropping its eggs as it were by
chance, is such a monstrous outrage on maternal affection, one of the
first great dictates of nature, and such a violence on instinct, that
had it only been related of a bird in the Brazils or Peru, it would
never have merited our belief.... She is hardened against her young ones
as though they were not hers.... 'Because God hath deprived her of
wisdom, neither hath He imparted to her understanding.'"

America is spared the infliction of this notorious "cuckoo." Its nearest
congeners, our yellow-billed and black-billed cuckoos, while suggesting
their foreign ally in shape and somewhat in song, have mended their
ways, and though it is true they make a bad mess of it, they at least
try to build their own nest, and rear their own young with tender
solicitude. The nest is usually so sparse and flimsy an affair that you
can see through its coarse mesh of sticks from below, the fledglings
lying as on a grid-iron or toaster; and it is, moreover, occasionally
so much higher in the centre than at the sides that the chicks tumble
out of bed and perish. Still, it _is_ a beginning in the right
direction.

[Illustration]

Yes, it would appear that our American cuckoo is endeavoring to make
amends for the sins of its ancestors; but, what is less to its credit,
it has apparently found a scapegoat, to which it would ever appear
anxious to call our attention, as it stammers forth, in accents of
warning, "c, c, cow, cow, cow! cowow, cowow!" It never gets any further
than this; but doubtless in due process of vocal evolution we shall yet
hear the "bunting," or "black-bird," which is evidently what he is
trying to say.

Owing to the onomatopoetic quality of the "kow, kow, kow!" of the bird,
it is known in some sections as the "kow-bird," and is thus confounded
with the _real_ cow-bird, and gets the credit of her mischief, even as
in other parts of the country, under the correct name of "cuckoo," it
bears the odium of its foreign relative.

For though we have no disreputable cuckoo, ornithologically speaking,
let us not congratulate ourselves too hastily. We have his counterpart
in a black sheep of featherdom which vies with his European rival in
deeds of cun