CHAPTER l6 



THE EUROPEAN CUCKOO 



And these are they which ye shall have in abomination 

 among the fowls . . . 



Leviticus 11:13 



THERE ARE about 200 different species of cuckoo, but only one breeds 

 in Britain — the European cuckoo (Plate XXXVIIIb). The ancient 

 Hebrews were possibly deceived by its hawk-like appearance and, for 

 this reason, may have prohibited it, along with the nightjars and the owls, 

 as an article of diet.* Most casual observers to-day who catch sight of a 

 cuckoo beating along open hedgerows, or gliding out of a thicket or 

 copse, mistake it for a bird of prey. It must be admitted that in 

 silhouette, colouring, size and flight it is superficially very like a 

 sparrow-hawk. Compared with some of its foreign relatives it is a drab 

 bird. The upper parts and breast are blue-grey and the remaining 

 under-parts whitish with dark bars. The legs and feet are yellow. In 

 Asia, India and Africa many cuckoos are brilliantly coloured — bright 

 metallic green, purple, bronze, golden and pied. Quite a large propor- 

 tion of the American species — most of which are not parasitic — 

 are terrestrial birds, which rarely use their wings, but can put on an 

 amazing turn of speed running across country or through dense 

 undergrowth. 



The song of the male cuckoo is too well known to require descrip- 

 tion, but in these days of specialisation many naturalists are unaware 

 that the female of the species does not "cuckoo" at all, but has a soft 

 bubbling call — rather like a sudden rush of water through a narrow- 

 necked bottle. Almost everything about the European cuckoo is peculiar, 

 even its diet. Hairy caterpillars constitute its favourite food — a form of 

 nourishment which no other bird would touch — and their hairs become 

 imbedded in the cuckoo's gizzard so that it appears to be lined with 



y * According to the Authorised Version. 



256 



