56 A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CUCKOO. : 
in short, evincing by these gestures their near relationship of affinity 
to the Australian Rain Fowl. The voice of the young is an un- 
pleasant shrill twitter, at once recognizable, and which is very apt 
to betray the place of concealment. 
The Cuckoo’s food consists principally of insects, chiefly, however, 
the larger caterpillars, both smooth and hairy. These it first kills 
by shaking and knocking them violently against the bough on which 
it is perched, and then renders them thoroughly pliant by passing 
them several times through the bill, before it swallows them. It 
also feeds largely in the spring upon the common May Chaffer ( Me- 
lolontha vulgaris), and has been seen to pursue and capture Dragon- 
flies on the wing. As the season advances it will also attack vari- 
ous kinds of fruit, as Cherries (of which it is particularly fond) and 
Currants. It appears, also, to devour bird’s eggs, as weil as callow 
nestlings, of which more presently ; but caterpillars form decidedly 
its principal and main food, the exuvie of which it casts up in the 
manner of a Hawk, in oval pellets, of the size of a Sparrow’s egg. 
It is in search of these that the Cuckoo is so often seen about fruit- 
trees, at the time of its first arrival ; and it doubtless renders them 
an efficient service, as it not only preys upon those which have 
grown to some size, but also, in the spring, may be frequently ob- 
served deliberately picking out the newly-hatched larve from their 
webs ; an operation which has been construed by gardeners into 
‘sucking the blossom,” if any meaning can attach to such a phrase. 
Whilst feeding on a tree, the Cuckoo leans very forward upon the 
bough on which it is sitting, as it examines the foliage for caterpil- 
lars, its tail being sometimes raised; and it frequently takes sur- 
prising leaps from bough to bough, considering the shortness of its 
legs. I have never seen it attempt to climb in any sort of way, nor 
walk up a branch, using its feet alternately; but conceive that the 
object of its having the outer toe reversed is merely to enable it to 
grasp its perch more firmly, when leaning so much forward. 
Respecting the carnivorous propensity of the Cuckoo, and also the 
habit already mentioned, of performing its migrations in society (of 
which latter fact I have abundant additional evidence), it may be 
interesting to quote a passage from A Familiar History of Birds, 
the production of the present Bishop of Norwich. “Some years 
ago,” relates his lordship, “ at dawn of day, early in the spring, a 
gentleman living on the Cheshire side of the river Mersey, opposite 
Liverpool, was awakened by a kind of chattering noise, interrupted 
by the ery of “ cuckoo, cuckoo,” in a low plantation near his house, 
situated amongst the sand-hills bordering the shores of the estuary, 
