Word: cuckoos
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...problem of the cuckoo was a step nearer solution last week, with the publication of Cuckoo Problems (H.F. & G. Witherby, Ltd., London), an authoritative treatise on the somewhat wayward habits of large European and Asiatic cuckoos which lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, leave their young to be brought up by foster parents.* Author: the 78-year-old dean of British ornithologists, Edward Charles Stuart Baker, C.I.E.; O.B.E.; F.Z.S.; M.B.O.U.; H.F.A.O.U.; H.F.H.O.U.; F.L.S...
Ornithologist Baker's interest in cuckoos began rather dramatically. "I was a very small boy," he writes, "when I found my first Cuckoo's egg in a Hedge-Sparrow's nest in a Norfolk lane. [It was] a red letter day which synchronized with my first attempt to read The Origin of Species. Since then I have been filled with interest in Cuckoo's eggs and Evolution...
...cuckoo problem that most deeply engrosses Ornithologist Baker and others is: How does the cuckoo get the egg into the nest? This problem is posed by the fact that some wise birds build nests with obstructive entrances for the express purpose of keeping out cuckoos. The cuckoo has developed several methods for outwitting these isolationists. Cuckooists recognize a First, Second and Third Method. In the First Method the cuckoo simply squats down and lays her egg. The Second Method is somewhat more complicated, comes into play when the cuckoo is momentarily baffled by a nest built in a hollow tree...
...extremely rare Third Method, a kind of fourth dimension among cuckoo problems, that is still controversial. The Third Method is used when a cuckoo encounters a nest with a very small or tortuous entrance. Unable to squat or cling, the cuckoo flutters to the ground, lays an egg, is thought by some to swallow it, then poke her long bill and neck into the nest opening, and regurgitate...
...remembered, is Russia's most beautiful month. In the south, the cherries and peaches ripen; the rich black loam of the Ukraine bakes from mud to dust; on the Central Front, around Moscow, the spongy forest land is thick with violets and lilies-of-the-valley, and the cuckoo and nightingale sing...