114 CUCULUS CANORUS. 



fourth rounded without slit, but with the edges and tip bristly. 

 These differences appear to be produced by use, the first or 

 pointed form being the normal. Similar changes are exhibited 

 in the bill, claws, and feathers of many birds. 



The oesophagus and stomach, in fact the digestive organs in 

 general, are very similar to those of the Owls. It is a very re- 

 markable circumstance that when the bird arrives at first, its food 

 consisting of coleopterous and other insects, the cuticular lining 

 of its stomach is smooth ; whereas some time after, when the bird 

 lives chiefly on hairy caterpillars, it is often completely covered 

 with their hairs, which are thrust in and arranged in a circular 

 manner, so as exactly to resemble the pile of some quadrupeds. 

 This disposition of the hairs shews that the action of the sto- 

 mach causes the mass of food contained in it to move in a rota- 

 tory manner. It also shews that the epithelium, although very 

 soft, is destitute of blood-vessels and nerves, otherwise inflamma- 

 tion would be induced by so many punctures. Coccyzus Ameri- 

 canus, a species of a nearly allied genus, which I have dissected, 

 presents the same circumstance. " In examining this bird by 

 dissection,"" says Wilson, " the inner membrane of the gizzard, 

 which in so many other species is so hard and muscular (horny), 

 in this is extremely lax and soft, capable of great distension ; 

 and, what is remarkable, is covered with a growth of fine down, 

 or hair, of a light fawn colour. It is diflftcult," he continues, 

 " to ascertain the particular purpose which Nature intends by 

 this excrescence ; perhaps it may serve to shield the tender 

 parts from the irritating effects produced by the hairs of cer- 

 tain caterpillars, some of which are said to be almost equal to 

 the sting of a nettle." This down, of course, is nothing else 

 than hairs of caterpillars, and it is amusing to observe the idle 

 ingenuity perpetually displayed in assigning reasons for facts 

 and phenomena of which people have no adequate knowledge. 

 On this subject the author of the article Cuckoo in Parting- 

 ton's Cyclopaedia remarks that " the same has been said, first 

 probably by some compiler who had read Wilson's article, and 

 who thought he might safely enough infer it from analogy, of 

 the stomach of the European Cuckoo, but the writer of this 

 has dissected several, and never observed anything of the kind." 

 Then, lot him dissect several more, and learn the truth. 



