272 CUCKOOS. 



nay, they are often observed to fly on to their backs, and the cattle 

 will even lie down for them if much troubled with ticks ; but if the 

 beast be heedless, they hop once or twice round it, looking it very 

 earnestly in the face every time they pass, as if they seemed to 

 know that it was only requisite to be seen to be indulged. They 

 are very noisy birds, and one of the commonest sorts in all the 

 pastures of Jamaica. Their flight is low and short." — Brown, 

 " History of jfamaica!' 



The type of this sub-family is — 



The Greater Tick-eater {Crotophaga major). 



Sub-Family V. 

 THE CUCKOOS TROPER. CUCULIN^.. 



Gkneral Characteristics. — Bill broad, and rather depressed at the base; the 

 culmen curved, and the sides compressed to the lip, which is entire or slightly 

 emarginated ; the nostrils basal and membranous, with the opening exposed; the 

 wings long and generally pointed; the tail long and usually graduated; the tar.-^i 

 short, partly clothed with feathers, and partly covered with broad scales. 



These birds are peculiar to the warmer portions of the Old 

 World. They are migratory and of solitary habits, frequenting 

 woody places and gardens in quest of their subsistence, and gene- 

 rally perch in bushes, or upon the lower branches of trees, flying 

 occasionally from one to another at a short distance. Their food 

 consists principally of caterpillars, which they kill by pressing 

 them with their bill before swallowing them, usually cutting off 

 the hinder end of their prey, and by repeated jerks freeing it from 

 extraneous matter ; they sometimes feed on perfect lepidoptcrous 

 insects. Their note is loud, and uttered in a lengthened and melan- 

 choly manner, especially early in the morning and at the decline 

 of day, sometimes even during the night. It is remarkable that 

 the females of our common species do not form any nest, but 

 mostly deposit their eggs in the nests of sylvan birds, leaving to 

 the foster-parent the entire charge of hatching and rearing the 

 young cuckoo, which, if it finds itself incommoded by the rightful 

 owners of the nest, casts them out to perish on the ground ; so 

 that the entire care of the foster-parent is ultimately bestowed 

 upon the intruder. 



