553 



CUBATUIIE OF A SOLID CUCKOO. 



sent from England a formidable expedition, which, 

 after its junction with the naval force that had been 

 already serving in the West Indies, consisted of 

 nineteen ships of the line, eighteen small vessels of 

 war, and 150 transports, which conveyed 12,000, 

 troops. The whole of the fleet appeared oft' Ilavau- 

 nah, June 6, 4000 more troops went from North 

 America, in July, to re-enforce them. The Spaniards 

 used every effort to defend the city. The British 

 were several times repelled, but at last the Spaniards 

 surrendered, August 13. The booty obtained by the 

 British was great. About three millions of dollars 

 in specie, and a large quantity of goods, fell into 

 their hands, besides a great quantity of munitions of 

 war, nine ships of the line, and four frigates. In 

 1763, the conquerors, notwithstanding the high 

 opinion that they had of the importance of Cuba, re- 

 stored it to Spain, in exchange for the Floridas. 

 Since then, Cuba has been a Spanish island, and has 

 been so well fortified, that it is now not in much dan- 

 ger from any attack that can be made upon it. The 

 forces of the island consist of 9886 regular troops, 

 and 14,560 militia. The navy contains two seventy- 

 fours, three frigates of fifty guns, one of forty, one 

 sloop of war, and two brigs of twenty-two guns each, 

 one brig of twenty, one of sixteen, and six schooners 

 mounting thirteen guns. 



CUBATURE OF A SOLID, in geometry ; the 

 measuring of the space contained in it, or finding tin- 

 solid content of it. 



CUBE, in geometry; a solid body consisting of 

 six equal square sides. The solidity of any cube is 

 found by multiplying the superficial area of one of 

 the sides by the height. Cubes are to one another 

 in the triplicate ratio of their diagonals ; and a cube 

 is supposed to be generated by the motion of a square 

 plane along a line equal to one of its sides, and at 

 right angles thereto ; whence it follows, that the 

 planes of all sections, parallel to the base, are 

 squares equal thereto, and, consequently, to one 

 another. 



CUBE, or CUBIC NUMBER, in arithmetic ; that 

 which is produced by the multiplication of a square 

 number by its root ; thus 64 is a cube number, and 

 arises by multiplying 16, the square of 4, by the 

 root, 4. 



CUBE, or CUBIC QUANTITY, in algebra ; the 

 third power in a series of geometrical proportionals 

 continued ; as, a is the root, a, a the square, and a, 

 a, a the cube. 



CUBE ROOT of any number or quantity is a 

 number or quantity, which, if multiplied into itself, 

 and then again by the product thence arising, gives 

 a product equal to the number or quantity whereof 

 it is the cube root ; as, 2 is the cube root of 8, be- 

 cause twice 2 are 4, and twice 4 are 8. 



CUBIC FOOT of any substance ; so much of it 

 as is contained in a cube whose side is one foot. 

 See Cube. 



CUBIT, in the mensuration of the ancients ; a 

 long measure, equal to the length of a man's arm, 

 from the elbow to the tip of the fingers. Doctor 

 Arbuthnot makes the English cubit equal to 18 in- 

 ches, the Roman cubit equal to 1 foot, 5-406 inches, 

 and the chief cubit of scripture equal to 1 foot, 9-888 

 inches. 



CUCKINGSTOOL ; an ancient instrument of 

 punishment, described, in Doomsday Book, as cathe- 

 dra stercoris. Scolds, cheating bakers, or brewers, 

 and other petty offenders, were led to this stool, and 

 immerged over head and ears in stercore, or stinking 

 water. 



CUCKOO (cuculus, LIN.) ; a genus of birds, cha- 

 racterized by. a bill of moderate size, short tarsi, and 

 tail composed of ten feathers. The bill is compress- 



ed, and slightly arched. The greatei number of 

 species belonging to this genus are found on the an- 

 cient continent. Only one species is a native ot 

 Great Britain, and very few belong to Europe. In 

 America, no true cuckoos are found, for the genus 

 coccyzus differs very essentially from them in its habits. 

 The cuckoos are especially distinguished by their ha- 

 bit of laying their eggs in the nests of other, and, 

 generally, much smaller birds. What is still more 

 singular, it has been found, by very careful observa- 

 tions, that the young cuckoo, shortly after being 

 hatched, throws out of the nest all the other young 

 or eggs, and thus engrosses to itself the whole pa- 

 rentaf care of the bird in whose nest it has been 

 lodged. The manner in which this ejectment is 

 effected is thus described by Jenner, in the second 

 part of the Philosophical Transactions for 1788, article 

 14 : " The little animal, with the assistance of its 

 rump and wings, contrived to get the bird on its back, 

 and, making a lodgment for the burden by elevatin<> 

 its elbows, clambered backwards with it up the side 

 of the nest, till it reached the top, where, resting for 

 a moment, it threw off its load with a jerk, and quite 

 disengaged it from the nest. It remained in this si- 

 tuation a short time, feeling about with the extremity 

 of its wings, as if to be convinced whether the busi- 

 ness was properly executed, and then dropped into 

 the nest again. With these (the extremities of its 

 wings) I have often seen it examine, as it were, an 

 egg or nestling before it began its operations ; and 

 the nice sensibility which these parts appeared to 

 possess seemed sufficient to compensate the want 

 of sight, which, as yet, it was destitute of. I after- 

 wards put in an egg, and this, by a similar process, 

 was conveyed to the edge of the nest, and thrown 

 out. These experiments I have since repeated several 

 times, in different nests, and have always found the 

 young cuckoo disposed to act in the same manner. 

 In climbing up the nest it sometimes drops its burden, 

 and thus is foiled in its endeavours ; but, after a little 

 respite, the work is resumed, and goes on almost in- 

 cessantly till it is effected. It is wonderful to see 

 the extraordinary exertion of the young cuckoo, 

 when it is only two or three days old, if a bird be put 

 in the nest with it, that is too weighty for it to lift 

 out. In this state, it seems ever restless and uneasy. 

 But this disposition for turning out its companions 

 begins to decline from the time it is two or three till 

 it is twelve days old; when, as far as 1 have seen, it 

 ceases. Indeed, the disposition for throwing out the 

 egg appears to cease a few days sooner ; for I have 

 frequently seen the young cuckoo, after it has been 

 hatched nine or ten days, remove a nestling that had 

 been placed in the nest with it, when it suffered an 

 egg, put there at the same time, to remain unmolest- 

 ed. The singularity of its shape is well adapted tc 

 these purposes; for, different from other newlj 

 hatched birds, its back, from the scapulae downwards 

 is very broad, with a considerable depression in the 

 middle. This depression seems formed by nature for 

 the purpose of giving a more secure lodgment to 

 the egg of 'the hedge-sparrow or its young one, when 

 the young cuckoo is employed in removing either of 

 them from the nest. When it is about twelve days 

 old, this cavity is quite filled up, and then the back 

 assumes the shape of nestling birds in general. A 

 young cuckoo that had been hatched by a hedge- 

 sparrow about four hours, was confined in the nest 

 in such a manner, that it could not possibly turn out 

 the young hedge-sparrows, which were hatched at 

 the same time, though it was almost incessantly 

 making attempts to effect it. The consequence was, 

 the old birds fed the whole alike, and appeared, in 

 every respect, to pay the same attention to the young 

 cuckoo us to their own young, until the 13th day, 



