340 Observations on the Cuckoo. 



fly to it, and not return till it had eaten plentifully : sometimes 

 it would not return to its master for a whole day, but followed 

 him at a distance, flying from tree to tree. In the house it 

 might range at will, and passed the night on the roost." 



When first taken, young cuckoos are always extremely 

 savage and voracious ; but I have myself seen a pair that were 

 tolerably tame, and which were allowed the free range of a 

 large kitchen, where they commonly used to sit upon the 

 fender, warming themselves by the fire. The larvae of lepi- 

 dopterous insects undoubtedly constitute the principal and 

 main food of this species in a state of nature ; and they may 

 very frequently be seen, in spring, upon an apple or other 

 fruit tree, deliberately picking out the blight [small caterpil- 

 lars]. This has given rise to a very common opinion, that 

 the cuckoo " sucks the blossoms," if any meaning can be 

 attached to this phrase. 



Respecting the cuckoo's migration, a very accurate observer 

 informs me that, in the north of Scotland, near the north- 

 eastern extremity of the Grampians, he once saw a flock of 

 sixteen cuckoos, in September, flying in a south-easterly 

 direction, towards the German Ocean, which was distant 

 about half a mile : it was in the afternoon ; and my informant 

 is quite positive with regard to the species, as they passed 

 very close to him : it is not, indeed, a bird that those who 

 know can very easily mistake. Of course, these were young 

 individuals, as the old ones leave us about the latter end of 

 July, or beginning of August.* In answer to the question 

 (p. 301.), " Whither does the cuckoo, on its leaving Britain, 

 go ? " I may remark that M. Temminck speaks of having 

 received specimens from Egypt, but does not state the time 

 of the year. The nightingale and the whitethroat are well 

 known to abound in Egypt during the winter months; and 

 there can be very little doubt but that Egypt and Syria, and 

 the countries bordering upon the Red Sea, are the general 

 rendezvous, in winter, of all the small migratory birds (the 

 cuckoo among the rest) which enliven our summer walks with 

 their presence ; and which, warbling their delightful melody 

 amid the blossoms and opening leaves, constitute one of the 

 principal charms of a European spring. 



Tooting, Surrey, May 6. 1835. 



* Another person, also, whose authority in these matters I have reason 

 to respect, tells me that the old cuckoos, also, congregate in flocks of twenty 

 or thirty, towards the close of summer, just before they leave the country. 

 This is, at least, worthy of being further enquired into. Has any reader 

 ever known a cuckoo to alight upon a vessel, in the course of its journey 

 across the sea? 



