it lays only one egg and
does not hatch it itself, but the mother-bird in whose nest it has
deposited it hatches and rears it; and, as they say, this mother bird,
when the young cuckoo has grown big, thrusts her own brood out of
the nest and lets them perish; others say that this mother-bird
kills her own brood and gives them to the alien to devour, despising
her own young owing to the beauty of the cuckoo. Personal observers
agree in telling most of these stories, but are not in agreement as to
the instruction of the young. Some say that the mother-cuckoo comes
and devours the brood of the rearing mother; others say that the young
cuckoo from its superior size snaps up the food brought before the
smaller brood have a chance, and that in consequence the smaller brood
die of hunger; others say that, by its superior strength, it
actually kills the other ones whilst it is being reared up with
them. The cuckoo shows great sagacity in the disposal of its
progeny; the fact is, the mother cuckoo is quite conscious of her
own cowardice and of the fact that she could never help her young
one in an emergency, and so, for the security of the young one, she
makes of him a supposititious child in an alien nest.
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