THE CUCKOO. * 319 



the belief in a metamorphosis, strengthened not a 

 little by the fact that the habits of the bird were 

 peculiar in other respects. Even so late as the time of 

 our own countrymen, Willughby and Eay (1676), it was 

 a matter of doubt whether the Cuckoo lay torpid in a 

 hollow tree, or migrated during winter. These authors, 

 though they do not admit their belief of a story told by 

 Aldrovandus of a certain Swiss peasant having heard the 

 note of a Cuckoo proceed from a log of wood which he 

 had thrown into a furnace, thought it highly probable 

 that the Cuckoo did become torpid during winter, and 

 were acquainted with instances of persons who had heard 

 its note during unusually mild winter weather. The 

 assertion again of the older naturalists, that the Cuckoo 

 is the object of hatred among birds generally, seems 

 credible, though I should be inclined to consider its 

 habit of laying its eggs in the nests of other bii'ds as 

 the cause rather than the consequence of its unpopularity. 

 The contrary however is the fact, numerous anecdotes of 

 the Cuckoo showing that it is regarded by many other 

 birds with a respect which amounts to infatuation, rather 

 than with apprehension. The statement that it lays but 

 one egg is erroneous, so also is the assertion of "Willughby 

 that it invariably destroys the eggs found in a nest pre- 

 viously to depositing its own. Pliny's assertion that the 

 young bird devours its foster brothers and sisters is nearer 

 the truth, but his account of its crowning act of impiety 

 in swallo^ving its nurse, is, I need not say, altogether 

 unfounded in fact. Having disposed of these errors, some 

 of which are entertained by the credulous or ill-informed 

 at the present day, I will proceed to sketch in outline 

 the biography of this singular bird, as the facts are now 

 pretty generally admitted. 



The Cuckoo arrives in this country about the middle 

 of April, and during the whole of its stay leads a wan- 

 dering life, building no nest, and attaching itself to no 



