CUCULUS CANORUS. 529 



If you look into the nest to-day, you'll see him there quite plain, 

 Sitting on the only sparrows that remain ; 



And the parent birds, distracted, are still wondering what to do 

 To rid their little dwelling of that terrible cuckoo." 



This reminds me of what Shakespeare makes the fool say to 

 King Lear — 



" The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long 

 That it had its head bit off by its young" — 



as King Lear had his sovereignty bit off by his daughters ; or 

 as he makes Pompey say to Mark Antony in "Antony and 

 Cleopatra" — 



Pompey — "Thou dost o'erconnt me of my father's house; 

 But since the cuckoo builds not for himself, 

 Remain in't as thou mayest." 



ORDEE III. 



As no members of the fifth or Tenuirostral tribe of the 

 Insessores or perchers are found in Britain, we come to the 

 Rasores or scrapers of Illiger, the third order of bird in this 

 classification, which, in addition to the Gallince of former 

 authors, embraces the Columbce and the Struthiones — this last 

 group containing some of the largest species of birds in the 

 world, such as the ostrich and the cassowary, which, though 

 deprived (by their shortness of wing) of that power of flight 

 possessed by the two previous orders — the Maptores and 

 Insessores — make up for it by their speed and endurance in 

 running, their legs and muscles having extraordinary power, and 

 their feet constructed for the purpose, the toes being short and 

 strengthened by a membrane connecting them at the base, 

 while the hind toe is either wanting or imperfectly developed 

 on the tarsus. The five divisions which compose this order are 

 the Columbidce, Phasiandce, Tetrionidce, Struthionidce, and 

 Cracidce. Of the last we have no representative in Europe. 

 The dodo (now extinct) is supposed to be the connecting link 

 between the latter divisions as well as the American rhea — a 

 bird nearly as large as the ostrich. The genus Gallus, in which 

 our domestic fowls Gcdlus Domesticus are, gave its name to the 

 Gallinaceous birds. Though the general form of our domestic 

 fowls agree with the pheasant, yet the comb and arched tail of the 

 domestic cock proclaim the difference. They are all polygamous, 



