"Yes, here are some. You see they are of a bluish-green colour, with
dark blotches; and very pretty they are too.--Those blue eggs with a few
black spots on them belong to the thrush. You must have heard the
thrushes singing about grandpa's garden; there are plenty of them
there."

"I'm afraid you haven't a cuckoo's egg, Tom," said Annie.

"I am so lucky as to have one, Annie. It is very small for the size of
the bird, and not particularly pretty. You see it is a dull-looking egg,
whitish, with pale-brown markings. This particular egg was taken from
the nest of a hedge-sparrow; but cuckoos' eggs have been found in the
nests of many other birds--robin's, and skylark's, and chaffinch's,
linnet's, blackbird's, and wren's, and many more besides."

"Why does not the cuckoo build a nest for herself?" asked Annie.

"Nobody seems to know why she doesn't; but there's the fact. When the
cuckoo has laid an egg, she carries it in her wide, gaping mouth, and
puts it into the nest of another bird that she has chosen for it. When
the egg is hatched, the young cuckoo grows so fast that he wants all the
nest to himself. He turns the other young birds that have been hatched
with him out of the nest, and the true parents of these little birds
have to spend all their time in feeding the cuckoo. It takes a great
deal to feed him, because he grows so fast, and is so much larger than
they are. They don't seem to mind it though.--Those pale-green eggs with
dark-brown spots belonged to a rook's nest in the elm-tree at the bottom
of the garden. There's a curious story about those rooks down there, for
they have not been there long. There is an old rookery belonging to the
Rectory close by our house; and one day the rooks from there came to our