218 THE CrCKOO. 



arises from tlie internal structure of fheir parts, winch inca- 

 pacitates them for incubation. According to this gentleman, 

 the crop, or craw, of a cuckoo, does not lie before the 

 sternum at the bottom of the neck, as in the gallincey 

 columhce, &c., but immediately behind it, on and over the 

 bowels, so as to make a large protuberance in the belly.* 



Induced by this assertion, we procured a cuckoo ; and, 

 cutting open the breast-bone, and exposing the intestines to 

 sight, found the crop lying as mentioned above. This 

 stomach was large and round, and stuffed hard, like a pin- 

 cushion, with food, which, upon nice examination, we found 

 to consist of various insects, such as small scarabs, spiders, 

 and dragon-flies — the last of which we have seen cuckoos 

 catching on the wing, as they were just emerging out of the 

 aurelia state. Among this farrago also were to be seen 

 maggots, and many seeds which belonged either to goose- 

 berries, currants, cranberries, or some such fruit ; so that 

 these birds apparently subsist on insects and fruits ; nor was 

 there the least appearance of bones, feathers, or fur, to sup- 

 port the idle notion of their being birds of prey.f 



The sternum in this bird seemed to us to be remarkably 

 short, between which and the anus lay the crop, or craw, 

 and immediately behind that the bowels, against the back- 

 bone. 



It must be allowed, as this anatomist observes, that the 

 crop, J placed just below the bowels, must, especially when 

 full, be in a very uneasy situation during the business of 



quantity of food ; to obtain which they must, like the swallow, be in constant 

 search of it. If they sat on their eggs, therefore, how is this necessary supply 

 to be obtained .!* The eggs would be chilled while they were on the 

 wing. — Ed. 



* Histoire de VAcademie Royale, 1752. 



f When these birds have fed much on some of the large hairy caterpillai-s 

 60 common on the northern muirs, the stomach becomes filled and coated with 

 the short hairs, which may have assisted in raising the opinion that they feed 

 on small animals. — W. J. 



X " The cuckoo," Mr. Owen says, *' has no true crop, and the situation of 

 its proventiculus does not differ from that of other scansorial birds ; the 

 oesophagus descends along the posterior or dorsal part of the thorax, inclinicg 

 to the side, and, when opposite to the lower margin of the left lung, it 

 begins to expand into the glandular cavity or proventiculus. The gizzard, 

 which is neither large or strong, is in immediate contact with the abdominal 

 parietes, not separated from them by an intervening stratum of intestines ; 



