'304 THE FLATHERED TRIBES. 



back at this early age being pl■o^•ide(i with a iDcculiar depression between the shoulders), 

 and shiifHing backwards to the edge of the nest, by a jerk rids itself of the iucumbrance ; 

 and this operation is repeated till, the whole being thrown over, it remains solo possessor. 

 This particular tendency remains for about twelve days, after which the hollow place 

 between the shoidders is filled up ; and when prevented from accomplishing its purpose 

 till the expiration of that time, as if conscious of inability, it suffers its companions to 

 remain unmolested." 



Various supposed reasons have been assigned for this anomalous, and we might almost 

 s-ty unnatural, instinct. Some have attributed it to the displacement of certain viscera 

 (the gizzard is said to be situate further back than in most other birds), which unfits the 

 cuckoos for the purposes of incubation, while others imagine that the early period at which 

 they migrate from this country (they are generally off by the beginning of July) 

 makes it necessary that they should leave their offspring to the care of foster-parents. 

 But anatomical investigation has not proved anything sufliciently peculiar in their 

 structure to warrant the first conclusion ; and as to the second, it seems to us not so much 

 a deduction from a regulating and causative fact in their history, as the statement of an 

 additional circumstance which renders that history still more singular, and which 

 naturally leads to the question, not easily answered, of wliy do they migrate so early 'i 

 In short, we know nothing at all about the matter, further than that the cuckoo of 

 Europe, like the Emheriza jwcork or cow-bunting of America, always lays eggs, but 

 never hatches them. It may be a practice common to several species, but the rare black 

 and white spotted cuckoo, Cticulus Pisanus, Gm., an odd name for an African bird 

 which happened once upon a time to visit Tuscany, is stated by the authors, of the 

 Stoviadcgli UcccUi to have built a nest in the woods of Pisa, and reared four youny onen. 

 This species is extremely rare in Europe. It is known, however, in the Genoese 

 territorj', and the young have been occasionallj^ killed in the south of France. Many 

 beautifvd cuckoos are fomid in foreign countries. 



" I had an opportunity," says a naturalist, "of witnessing a singular fact in the case of 

 a young cuckoo which was hatched in the nest of a water wagtail, who had built in some 

 ivy on a wall close to my house. It required the united efforts of both the old birds from 

 morning to night to satisfy his himger, and I never saw birds more indefatigable than 

 thej' were. When the young cuckoo had nearly arrived at his full size, he appeared on 

 the little nest of the water wag-tail, 'like a giant in a cock-boat.' Just before he could 

 fly he was put into a cage, in which situation the old birds continued to feed him, till by 

 some accident he made his escape, and remained in a high elm tree near the house. Here 

 the water wagtails were observed to feed him v>ith the same assiduity for at least a 

 fortnight afterwards. ' ' 



The f'ollin\ing circumstances occurred at Arbury, in "Warwiclvshire, the seat of Francis 

 Newdigate, Esq., and was witnessed by several persons residing in his house. The 

 particulars were written down at the tune by a lady, who bestowed much time in watching 

 the young cuckoo, and the fact is given in her own words : — " In the early part of the 

 summer of 1.S2S, a cuckoo, having previously turned out the eggs from a water wagtail's 

 nest, which was built in a small hole in a garden wall at Arbury, deposited her o\>-n c^^ 

 in their phice. "NVlien the egg was hafchi^d, the young intruder was fed by the water 

 wagtails, till lu' became too bulky for his coulhu'd and uarniw (piarters, and in a fidgetty 

 fit he fell to the ground. In this predicanuut he was found by the gardener, wlio picked 

 him tq), and put him intu a wire cage, whiili was placed on the fop of a wall, nut far 

 from tlie place of its liirth. Ileri! it was e.Npected tliat tlie wagtails would lia\c lollnwed 

 their supposititious (offspring with I'nod tn ^upjiorl il in its inq)risiiunient — a mode of 

 lU'occdure which would June liad iKitliing wry uncdinnion to rccouinicnd il to notice. 

 But the odd part of the story is, that tiic bird which iialched the cuckoo ne\cr came near 



