186 CUCULID.E. 



vals of several days, and this is now known to be the case in 

 tlie Yellow-billed Cuckoo of America, which does bring up 

 its own young. Four examples of this bird having been shot 

 in this country, it is entitled to a place in this work, and its 

 history will follow in detail ; it may be sufficient here briefly 

 to state that the nests of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, when 

 examined, contained no two eggs or young birds of the same 

 age ; but all exhibited an obvious difference of several days 

 between their various stages of advancement. 



I have constantly observed, when examining the anatomical 

 structure of our Cuckoo, the small comparative size of the 

 parts destined to effect the reproduction of the species. On 

 this subject I furnished a note to Mr. James Jennings, which 

 was published in his Ornithologia in 1828. Dr. Jenner, in 

 his paper on the migi-ation of birds, says that he had never 

 found the internal sexual organs of the male Cuckoo so large 

 as those of the Wren, yet the two birds compared in size are 

 as six to one. Mr. Thompson of Belfast, who dissected a 

 female Cuckoo on the 28th of May 1833, says it did not 

 contain any eggs so large as ordinary-sized peas. May not 

 the small size of these organs, and the probable low degree of 

 excitement, also diminish the interest attached to the provid- 

 ing for the wants of the young .'' but that this feeling is not 

 wholly obliterated in every instance is the opinion of Mr. J. 

 E. Gray of the British Museum ; who, from observations 

 made by himself, states that the Cuckoo does not uniformly 

 desert her offspring to the extent that has been supposed ; 

 but, on the contrary, that she continues in the precincts 

 where the eggs are deposited, and in all probability sometimes 

 takes the young under her protection when they are suffi- 

 ciently fledged to leave the nest. 



The Cuckoo is commonly distributed every summer over 

 England, Ireland, and Scotland ; it also visits Orkney. It is 

 found in Denmark and Sweden, and over Scandinavia gene- 



