The CUCKOO (Cuculus canorus,) visits our shores about the middle of April, and disperses itself singly or in pairs, over the country, especially where luxuriant and well wooded districts offer food and concealment. Concealed among the green foliage, it makes the wood

Its food

lands echo with its clear and well-known voice. consists of caterpillars, beetles, flies, and other insects, which it sometimes takes on the wing. White observes,

66

I saw several Cuckoos skimming over a large pond, and found, after some observation, that they were feeding on the libellula, or dragon-flies, some of which they caught as they settled on the weeds, and some as they were on the wing."

The most remarkable circumstance connected with the history of this bird, is the well ascertained fact of its depositing its eggs in the nests of other birds, leaving to them the rearing and care of its own offspring. The Cuckoo does not make an indiscriminate selection of a nest in which to lay her egg, but chooses the nest of an insectivorous bird, in order that the young Cuckoo may be supplied with the only food upon which it can subsist;

in general, one egg only is deposited in a nest, and the nest is usually that of a small bird, as for example, the hedge-sparrow, the pipit, the wagtail, or the garden warbler. These facts have been noticed by the earliest writers on Natural History, Aristotle and Pliny, who also observed the circumstance of the absence of the true offspring of the foster birds, the former supposing the old Cuckoo to have devoured the eggs she found in the nest previously to depositing her own, the latter asserting that the young Cuckoo voraciously devoured its fellow nestlings, and at last, with unparalleled ingratitude, devoured its foster-parents also; an error repeated by succeeding writers, and even by Linnæus. The young Cuckoo does indeed reign sole in the nest, and though it does not eat its little companions, it usurps dominion in a way quite as unnatural. In the Philos. Trans. for 1788, part ii. there is a very interesting paper on this subject by Dr. Jenner, to whom the world owes the discovery of vaccination, as a preventive against one of the scourges of mankind. "On the 18th of June," says he, "I examined the nest of a hedge-sparrow, (Accentor modularis,) which then contained a Cuckoo and three hedge-sparrow's eggs. On inspecting it the day following, the bird had hatched, but the nest then contained only a young Cuckoo and one hedgesparrow. The nest was placed so near the extremity of a hedge that I could distinctly see what was going forward in it; and to my great astonishment, I saw the young Cuckoo, though so lately hatched, in the act of turning out the young hedge-sparrow. The mode of accomplishing this was very curious: the little animal, with the assistance of its rump and wings, contrived to get the bird upon its back, and making a lodgment for its burden by elevating its elbows, clambered backwards with it, up the side of the nest, till it reached the top, where, resting for a moment, it threw off its load with a jerk, and quite disengaged it from the nest. It remained in this situation for a short time, feeling about with the extremities of its wings, as if to be convinced whether the business was properly executed, and then dropped into the nest again. With these, the extremities of its

wings, I have often seen it examine, as it were, an egg and nestling before it began its operations; and the nice sensibilities which these parts seem to possess, seemed sufficiently to compensate the want of sight, which as yet it was destitute of. I afterwards put in an egg, and this by a similar process, was conveyed to the edge of the nest and thrown out. These experiments I have since repeated several times in different nests, and have always found the young Cuckoo disposed to act in the same manner. In climbing up the nest, it sometimes drops its burden, and thus is foiled in its endeavours; but after a little respite the work is resumed, and goes on almost incessantly till it is effected. The singularity of its shape is well adapted to these purposes; far different from other newly hatched birds, its back, from the shoulders downwards, is very broad, with a considerable depression in the middle. This depression seems formed by nature for the design of giving a more secure lodgment to the egg of the hedgesparrow or its young one, when the young Cuckoo is employed in removing either of them from the nest. When it is about twelve days old, this cavity is quite filled up, and then the back assumes the shape of nestling birds in general.".... "It sometimes happens that two Cuckoo's eggs are deposited in the same nest, and then the young produced from one of them must inevitably perish. Two Cuckoo's, and one hedge-sparrow's egg were hatched in the same nest, and one hedge-sparrow's egg remained unhatched. In a few hours afterwards a contest began between the Cuckoos for the possession of the nest, which continued undetermined till the next afternoon, when one of them, which was somewhat superior in size, turned out the other, together with the young hedge-sparrow and the unhatched egg. The combatants alternately appeared to have the advantage as each carried the other several times to the top of the nest, and then sunk down again oppressed by the weight of the burden; till at length, after various efforts, the strongest prevailed, and was afterwards brought up by the hedge-sparrow."

These statements have been since abundantly confirmed by the observations of others, and among them by Colo

nel Montagu, who made several experiments, the results of which were precisely similar to those related by Dr. Jenner; and Mr. Blackwall, in the Manchester Memoirs for 1824, p. 463, adds also his testimony. " On the 30th of June I took a young Cuckoo that was hatched in a titlark's nest on the 28th, and this nestling, while in my possession, turned both young birds and eggs out of its nest, in which I had placed them for the purpose, and gave me an opportunity of contemplating at leisure the whole process of this astonishing proceeding, so minutely and accurately described by Dr. Jenner. I observed that this bird, though so young, threw itself backwards with considerable force when any thing touched it unexpectedly."

The motive which impels the Cuckoo thus to transfer her eggs into the nests of other birds, and leave her young to be brought up by them to the sacrifice of their own brood, is a mystery beyond our elucidation. Our British visitor is not however singular in this respect, as most, if not all the True Cuckoos act in the same manner, and one or two other birds besides. It is yet a query in what manner the egg is transferred to another's nest, for the Cuckoo is a large bird, and the nests are those of small birds; besides Cuckoo's eggs have been found in the domed nests of the wren, which have only an aperture just capable of the diminutive owner's entrance and exit, as well as in other nests upon which it is impossible for the Cuckoo to have sat. Le Vaillant ascertained that the Gilded Cuckoo of South Africa, conveyed her egg in her bill, in order to drop it into a fit and chosen nest, and possibly such may be the case with our British species.

The Cuckoo leaves our shores in the early part of July; and for some weeks before the period of migration, loses the mellow clearness of his voice, which breaks, or degenerates into a harsh monosyllable. The young birds differ considerably from the adult in their plumage, being rufous brown, barred universally with black.

The adult birds are of a beautiful ash colour above, the breast and under surface being white, elegantly crossed

with black undulating lines. The two middle tail feathers black, tipped with white, the others marked with white spots on each side of the shafts. Tarsi short and yellow; bill black; length fourteen inches.

The egg of the Cuckoo is very small, barely exceeding that of a common house-sparrow, and not much unlike it in its markings; but more streaked with black, and dotted with reddish spots. The number laid in a season is uncertain. The only mention of the Cuckoo in the Scriptures is in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, where it is mentioned as forbidden food. Dr. A. Clark considers, however, that the sea-mew is meant by the Hebrew word thus translated.

We have already alluded to the GILDED CUCKOO, (Cuculus auratus,) and with reference to our British species, a few observations on its manners, as related by Vaillant, may not be uninteresting. This beautiful bird inhabits the country above the Cape of Good Hope, being extremely common in Caffraria and Namaqua-land; the male utters a cry similar to the word Di-di-di-dric, whence has arisen one of its names. Vaillant states that his servant, Klaas, shot two hundred and ten males, one hundred and thirty females, and one hundred and three young ones, in all four hundred and forty-three, and that numbers more might easily have been procured, adding, "besides which, we found eighty-three of their eggs in as many nests, belonging to insectivorous birds."

66

Although this bird (the didric) be so common, if not in the immediate environs, yet about one hundred leagues from Cape Town, it was scarcely known in Europe before my voyages, and in France there was only one mutilated and badly preserved specimen of it to be seen in the Royal Museum at Paris. I myself brought over one hundred and fifty males and females, as well as young ones, which are now exhibited in the chief cabinets of Europe. To this beautiful species also I am indebted for my chief knowledge of the Cuckoo family. From the facility I had of leisurely and successfully observing its manners, I always entertained the hope that I should