(eae ee 
(441) 
OBSERVATIONS 
CONDUCIVE 
TOWARDS 
A MORE COMPLETE HISTORY 
OF THE 
CUCKOO. 
——— ae 
BY MR. JOHN BLACKWALL. 
(Read Nov. 28th, 1823.) 
PDURING a period of more than two thou- 
sand years, from the time of Aristotle, the 
father of natural history, to the year 1788, 
when the excellent observations of Mr. after- 
wards Dr. Jenner, so justly celebrated for 
the introduction of vaccination, were pub- 
lished in the Transactions of the Royal So- 
ciety,* the history of the cuckoo, if it de- 
served the appellation, consisted of a tissue 
of extragavant fables, very sparingly inter- 
spersed with facts. It will not be necessary 
to particularize the many fanciful conjectures 
transmitted to us by the ancients respecting 
this bird, as they have been repeatedly no- 
* Vol. LXXVIII. Pt. 2. 
3K 
