. Song birds and water fowl . nd themselves in a dilemma that baf-fles instinct itself. Other birds lay their fullcomplement of eggs, usually about five, on somany successive days, and immediately pro-ceed to incubate. But with the cuckoos, bysome natural derangement of the oviparousapparatus, several days often elapse betweensuccessive depositions. If she knew how manyeggs to expect she would probably postponesitting. In that case, however, those first laidmight possibly become stale. But her arith-metic is at fault, or else she is confused by thedelay, and, after laying one or two, and findi
. Song birds and water fowl . nd themselves in a dilemma that baf-fles instinct itself. Other birds lay their fullcomplement of eggs, usually about five, on somany successive days, and immediately pro-ceed to incubate. But with the cuckoos, bysome natural derangement of the oviparousapparatus, several days often elapse betweensuccessive depositions. If she knew how manyeggs to expect she would probably postponesitting. In that case, however, those first laidmight possibly become stale. But her arith-metic is at fault, or else she is confused by thedelay, and, after laying one or two, and findingthat none follow, she does the best she knowshow and begins to sit. Later another egg isdeposited, then another, and possibly a third,at intervals of several days. As a result, theeggs begin to hatch at corresponding mother is now in a quandary. If she re-mains on the nest to finish all the hatching, shewill perhaps starve the first arrivals. If shegoes off to get food for her first-born, she will io6 7—i13C. CUCKOO The poor cuckoos find tbemselves in a dilemma that baffles instinct itself (p. 106). Mistress Cuckoo possibly chill the life out of their prospectivebrothers and sisters. In such extremity shemay well vote family life a failure. Do whatshe will, it may cause some of the brood toperish ; and even if she succeeds in making thetwo ends meet, she is all the time in a desper-ate anxiety. As the historian would say, thisis no fancy sketch. Nests are sometimes foundwith birdlings in different stages of develop-ment, and eggs still unhatched. Placed in such a predicament, who can blameMistress Cuckoo for retaliating on Nature, asit were, and offsetting one abnormality byanother? Still, the American species are notcommonly deterred from maintaining the house-hold, and they cherish their offspring with thesame affection that other birds display. Butwe can hardly wonder if, with the memory ofprevious disastrous experience, they now andthen seek a happy issue
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