The Common Cormorant or Shag

The Common Cormorant or Shag
Lays its eggs in a paper bag,
So the Puffin can be a bit of a shock,
When it places its own on the top of a rock.
Of course, the Crow prefers a plastic sack,
For later use as a Mac, or an anorak.
The gentle Hen, with a fair degree of folly,
Will calmly place its eggs in a supermarket trolley;
So different, indeed, from the Bandersnatch
That covers its young with Siberian thatch.
With remarkable skill, between its thin legs
The Emperor Penguin can balance five of its eggs,
While wrapping another up in a sock
And playing some 'header' with the rest of the flock.
The Indian Tailor Bird will use all its skill
To stitch up a palace, having forgotten the pill,
While the goose is having a fight with the gander
On the absolute need of a pond in Rwanda.
The Parrot is quite a robust disciplinarian,
On top of its role as a committed Rotarian,
And expects all its eggs to sit silent, in rows,
As it delivers itself of some elegant prose,
(As the Dodo did in days of yore
Before the passing of the Dinosaur)
While the Crocodile splashes about in a muddy ablution,
Though bemoaning its lack of fast evolution.
The Gull can use its eggs for a quick game of ping-pong,
Despite the little problem that 'they are slightly oblong'.
The Cuckoo is nothing much of a nurse
And so gives to another her bright little cur… licue.
The Raven is often of a mind to float 'em
Far out to sea, to sink in deep ocean,
Prompting the Peawit to launch its in a sieve,
And take no advice, being sure they will live.
And last of all, and strange to say,
Neatly arranged, and all on display,
The Linnet keeps her progeny
Lodged in a basket up in the canopy,
Where an Eagle, in transit, can't fail to notice
How gently she applies a soothing poultice.