My dad and I were having a chat yesterday. In the book he was reading the word
"cuckold" was explained.
Cuckold comes from the word cuckoo (as in the bird). The cuckoo bird does not raise its own young.
The hen (female cuckoo) lays it's eggs one at a time in nests of different birds (often the Reed Warbler) who have just laid eggs then goes away. The poor parents left with the egg hatches it and raises the chick as their own, not knowing any better, often at the detriment of their own children.
In society though, a man is said to have been cuckolded if his wife passes off a baby as his, meaning she was unfaithful and had sexual relations with someone else. In the avian society, the mother of the chick is not the one who raises the chick. In effect, the parents end up adopting the chick not realizing it is not theirs ... which is weird because, in a far as the reed warblers and cuckoos are concerned, the size alone should tell you the chick is not yours.
In the photo above the bird above is a reed warbler (the foster parent) and the bird at the bottom is the chick. Yup. I said the chick, specifically, the cuckoo chick. Note the disparity in their size.
