62 ■ The Wilson Bulletin — No. T8. 



the lack of such attunement in the Cowbird and the European 

 Cuckoo is given as the cause of the parasitic habits of these birds. 

 But in tliese cases there seems to l>e no evidence that the nest 

 building member of the cycle is present. 



Professor Herricli states that " the whole fabric of instinctive 

 life is subject at nearly every step to the modifying influence 

 of intelligence," yet the discussion seems to be based on the as- 

 sumption that intelligence at most plays a very small if any part 

 during the period of the bird's life when the cyclical instincts hold 

 sway. 



The discussion is timely, interesting, and valuable, and should ar- 

 rest the attention of all students of birds. ' l. j. 



Life and Behavior of the Cuckoo. By Francis IT. Herrick. 23 

 Figs. Reprint from the Journal of Experimental Zoology. Vol. 

 IX, No. 1, Sept. 191, pp. 171-23?.. 



The author was, of necessity, largely confined to the work and 

 writings of ottiers for information concerning the European cuckoo 

 (Cuculus canorus). but his own studies of the behavior of the 

 Black-billed Cuckoo " at Northfield. New Hampshire, in July and 

 August, 1908 and 1909," furnished the material upon which the 

 discussion is really based. That the discussion is fairly exhaus- 

 tive for the breeding season is sufficiently attested by the thirteen 

 main heads in the table of contents, two sub-heads imder the topic 

 hatching and six sub-heads under the record of nest life and behavior. 

 Without going into details of the paper it may be enough to 

 briefly summarize the conclusions reached (pp. 232-233). 1. 

 " Cuckoos do not display more intelligence than many other spe- 

 cies of birds, the extraordinary acts which many of them perform 

 being sufficiently accounted for by the possession of modified and 

 highly specialized instincts." 2. "The origin of parasitism in 

 many of the Old World cuckoos and American cowbirds is to be 

 sought in the disturbance of the cyclical instincts," particularly 

 In the attunement of egg-laying to nest-lmilding. 3. The irregular- 

 ity of egg production in the two common American cuckoos might 

 tend toward parsitism were it not for the fact that the young 

 bird leaves the nest when seven days old. 4. A contact stimulus 

 of a disagreeable kind is given as the reason for the eviction in- 

 stinct of certain Old World cuckoos. 5. "The American black- 

 billed cuckoo is born with rudimentary down which never unfolds. 

 It has strong grasping reflexes, and is remarkably enduring. It 

 can hold by one leg or toe, for a surprising length of time, and 

 draw itself up to the perch with one or both feet, at birth or shortly 



