INTRODUCTION. 85 
to feed on the Bes-grubs, not on the honey, and they will guide 
to nests which contain no honey. The Indicators are plain 
Birds, and havea very bad habit, since they will lay their eggs 
in other Birds’ nests. 
In this they resemble the Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), a Bird 
with which almost all Englishmen must be familiar—at least 
as regards its monotonous song. It is a type and repre- 
sentative of a wonderfully distinct group of Birds, which 
includes about one hundred and sixty-five species, although to 
the uninstructed eye they may not seem nearly so distinctly 

Fig. 87. 

The Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus). 
marked a group as those which contain the Parrots, Wood- 
peckers, or Kingfishers. Ornithologists associate with them 
the group of Plantain-eaters, before noticed *, making a 
group of one hundred and ninety-one species, at the least. 
Cuckoos are very widely diffused, and extend into both the Old 
and New Worlds, including Australia and the West Indies. 
They seem to be absent from the coldest regions alone. 
_Insummer evenings, in the South of England, a curious noise, 
like the sound of a small rattle, is very commonly to be heard. 
* See ante, p. 79. 
