May 17—The annual arrival of the Indian Cuckoos is always something of a miracle to me: 1 refer to the bird locally known as the "one-more-bottle bird," and known to science s Cuculus micropterows. It is, inded. strange to think that these Cuckoos fly to us on queerly down-held fluttering wings all the way from India for they have no known winter base n China, Such thoughts came to me this norning as I watched a number of these birds ying high in the sky from one patch of trees to another uttering their strident cries: why is it that we know so little about them? Nobody can give an exact description of the egg as laid here. and there is considerable doubt as to the bird which they n victimize in this part of the country. Why should they fly thousands of miles lo new territory for the breeding season, when th: ild no nests? How did this instinct of migration survive in birds which have no home? My attempts to answer such questions only amount to ti I am one of the very few people who has seen Indian Cuckoos being fed by foster-parents. and they were Azure-winged Magpi I also suspect that they victimize the Great Reed-warbler, but have never been able to prove this: if they also mpose upon the tiny Fan-tailed Warbler (which I call Tinkerbell)—what a sight it would be to sce that wee bird feeding a great fat Cuckoo! I know that they feed mainly on caterpillars found in the trees, and I have actually seen a young Cuckoo taking such food from a cabbage crop: but here is one of the strangest things in bird-life! To see a Cuckoo being fed by any particular bird does not prove that such bird was its foster-parent: so strong is the maternal instinct in birds that a young Cuckoo has only to flutter its wings (demanding food) and any female bird in the neighbourhood will go and feed it. Even i koos are flutter-bottle" and the females are replying "Oni-oni-oni-oni-oni-oni" (very quickly)....it all sounds so very human.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.