CUCUMBER CUENZA. 



559 



when the nest was unfortunately plundered. The 

 wmiilness of the cuckoo's egg, in proportion to the 

 size of the bird, is a circumstance that hitherto, I 

 believe, has escaped the notice of the ornithologist. 

 So great is the disproportion, that it is, in general, 

 smaller than that of the house-sparrow ; whereas, 

 the difference in the size of the birds is nearly as five 

 to one. I have used the term in general, because 

 eggs produced at different times by the same bird, 

 vary very much in size. I have found a cuckoo's egg 

 so light, that it weighed only 43 grains, and one so 

 heavy, that it weighed 55 grains. The colour of 

 the cuckoo's eggs is extremely variable. Some, 

 both in ground and penciling, very much resemble 

 the house-sparrow's; some are distinctly covered 

 with bran-coloured spots ; and others are marked 

 with lines of black, resembling, in some measure, the 

 eggs of the yellow hammer." 



The cause of this singular habit of the common 

 cuckoo of Europe (cuculus canorus) has been long a 

 subject of discussion, without having been very satis- 

 factorily determined. The opinion of the observer 

 above cited appears to be as near the truth as we 

 may hope to arrive. He attributes it to the short stay 

 made by the bird in the country where it is under 

 the necessity of propagating its species. Were it 

 not to resort to some such expedient, it would be im- 

 possible that the species could be continued. The 

 cuckoo first appears in England about the 17th of 

 April. Its egg is not ready for incubation sooner 

 than the middle of May. A fortnight is taken up 

 by the sitting bird in hatching the egg. The bird 

 generally continues three weeKs in the nest before it 

 flies. The foster parents feed it for more than five 

 weeks after this period ; so that, if the cuckoo took 

 care of its own eggs and young, the newly hatched 

 bird would not be fit to provide for itself before its 

 parent would be instinctively directed to seek some 

 . new residence, and be thus compelled to abandon 

 its young one ; for the old cuckoos take their final 

 leave before the first week hi July. The young 

 cuckoos forsake the nest as soon as fully fledged, and 

 capable of providing for themselves. Their migra- 

 tions from Europe are thought to be chiefly directed 

 towards Africa ; thence they regularly return with 

 the spring, and, from some dead tree or bare bough, 

 the male pours forth his monotonous song, cuckoo ! 

 cue/coo ! 



In America, there is a bird of a very different 

 genus, which resembles the cuckoo in depositing its 

 egg in the nests of other birds, to be fostered by 

 them. This will be described under the title Emberiga. 



CUCUMBER. The genus cucumis, to which the 

 common cucumber belongs, contains seventeen spe- 

 cies, several of which are of considerable importance. 

 Cucumis colocynthis, producing the medicine called 

 coloqitintida, is a native of Africa. Cucumis anguria, 

 the round, prickly cucumber, is a native of the West 

 Indies, where it is used, with other vegetables, in 

 soups. Cucumis melo, the common melon, is sup- 

 posed to be a native of Persia : it was cultivated in 

 Europe in the 16th century. Cucumis sativus, the 

 common cucumber, is a native of the East Indies. 

 The varieties of this, as well as of the melon, are 

 easily produced. Those with the smoothest rind and 

 fewest seeds are most esteemed. Cucumis anguinus, 

 the snake cucumber, bears fruit sometimes from three 

 to four feet long. It is only raised as a curiosity, 

 the flavour being bitter. Several other species pro- 

 duce fruits that are eaten by the inhabitants of the 

 countries of which they are natives. The cucumber 

 was one of the luxuries of which Tiberius was parti- 

 cularly fond ; and, by the dexterous management of 

 his beds, he procured one every day, at all seasons of 

 the year. 



The common cucumber (cucwnis sativus) is an ob- 

 long, rough, and cooling fruit, supposed to have been 

 originally imported into Europe from some part of 

 the Levant. It belongs to the twenty-second class 

 of Linnaeus, and is a trailing and climbing plant. 

 The fruit is generally eaten cut in slices, with vine- 

 gar, pepper, &c. Some people think it unwholesome. 

 Sometimes cucumbers are eaten stewed. When 

 young, they are pickled (in England under the name 

 of g&rkins, which is connected with the German 

 gurkeri), with vinegar and spices, or preserved in 

 sirup as a sweetmeat. It is better to lay the fruit 

 on slate or tiles than upon the bare ground. Cucum- 

 bers are raised in England in very great quantity. The 

 village of Sandy, in Bedfordshire, has been known to 

 furnish 10,000 bushels of pickling cucumbers in one 

 week. In March, cucumbers have been known to 

 fetch, in the London market, a guinea a dozen ; in 

 August and September, one penny a dozen. 



CUCUTA (Rosario de.Cucuta), a town in Colom- 

 bia, forty miles north of Pamplona, known by the 

 congress which assembled here, May 1, 1821, and 

 finished its sittings in October of the same year. It 

 was this body which framed the constitution of Co- 

 lombia ; and it is considered as the first Colombian 

 congress, being the first convened under the funda- 

 mental law for uniting Venezuela and new Grenada 

 into a single republic. 



CUDWORTH, RALPH, a learned English divine 

 and philosopher, was born at Aller, in Somersetshire, 

 of which parish his father was rector, in 1617. He 

 was admitted a pensioner of Emanuel college, Cam- 

 bridge, at the age ofthirteen. His diligence as an 

 academical student was very great ; and, in 1639, he 

 took the degree of M. A., and was elected fellow of 

 his college. He became so eminent as a tutor, that 

 the number of his pupils exceeded all precedent, and' 

 in due time he was presented, by his college, to the 

 rectory of North Cadbury, in Somersetshire. In the 

 year 1642, he published a Discourse concerning the 

 true Nature of the Lord's Supper, and The Union of 

 Christ and the Church shadowed, or in a Shadow. 

 The first of these productions, which maintained that 

 the Lord's supper is a feast upon a sacrifice, produc- 

 ed considerable controversy long after the author's 

 death. In 1644, he took the degree of B. D., and 

 was chosen master of Clare-hall, and, in the following 

 year, was made regius professor of Hebrew. In 1651, 

 he was made D. D., and in 1654, chosen master of 

 Christ's college, Cambridge ; where, having taken a 

 wife, he spent the remainder of his days. In 1678, 

 he published his grand work, entitled The true In- 

 tellectual System of the Universe ; tlu; First Part, 

 wherein all the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is 

 confuted, and its Impossibility demonstrated (folio). 

 This work, which is an immense storehouse of ancient 

 learning, was intended, in the first instance, to be an 

 essay against the doctrine of necessity only ; but per- 

 ceiving that this doctrine was maintained by several 

 persons upon different principles, he distributed their 

 opinions under three different heads, which he intend- 

 ed to treat of in three books ; but his Intellectual Sys- 

 tem relates only to the first, viz., The material Neces- 

 sity of all Things without a God, or absolute Athe- 

 ism. It is a work of great power and erudition, al- 

 though the attachment of the author to the Platonism 

 of the Alexandrian school has led him to advance 

 some opinions which border on incomprehensibility 

 and mysticism. The moral as well as intellectual 

 character of this eminent scholar stood very high ; 

 and he died universally respected, in 1688, in the 

 seventy-first year of his age. 



CUENZA (anciently Canca) ; a city of Spain in 

 New Castile, capital of a province; 28 leagues 

 E.S. E. Madrid; Ion. 2 16' W. ; lat. 40 10 N. ; 





