390 



ZOOLOGY 



Cuckoos 

 and parrots 



ing the hosts of grasshoppers. The pigeons, 

 though typically arboreal, are by no means 

 universally so ; indeed, the domestic bird 

 is derived from the rock dove, which in- 

 habits rocky situations on the coasts and in 

 the mountains of Europe. The passenger 

 pigeon of America is now entirely extinct, 

 though formerly it existed in countless myri- 

 ads. The last one died at Cincinnati, Ohio, 

 September I, 1914. The dodo of the Island 

 of Mauritius was a peculiar large pigeon, in- 

 capable of flight. In its isolated home it fared 

 well until man arrived on the scene and ruth- 

 lessly destroyed the helpless and clumsy 

 creatures. By 1693 it appears that the last 

 dodo had perished. 



(n) Cuculiformes. Consisting of two suborders, one 

 containing the cuckoos, the other the par- 

 rots. The European cuckoo is noted for its 

 parasitic habits, its eggs being placed in the 

 nests of other birds, which know no better than 

 to rear the alien young. The little cuckoo, 

 not content to share the nest with its rightful 

 occupants, will 

 even push the 

 latter over the 

 side, where they 

 die in neglect 

 upon the ground. 

 This is merely 

 an extreme case 

 of a not uncom- 

 mon phenOme- From -Animate Creation" 

 non, that of One FIG. 163. The yellow-billed cuckoo. 



