190 



CUCKOO. 



as it flies across a field ; sometimes, also, during the 

 night. Some sound and accurate observations upon 

 this species are contained in the following unsophisti- 

 cated doggrel ; they apply, however, only to the 

 adult cuckoo, for the young of the year do not leave 

 us till the month of September. 



" In April, 

 Come he will ; 

 In May, 



He sings all day ; 

 In June, 



He changes his tune; 

 In July, 

 Off he'll fly, 

 But in August, 

 Go he must." 



The alteration of the note in June is, as we have 

 already staled, entirely dependent upon the weather, 

 which, at least in the south of England, where the 

 rhymes are current, is usually very hot and dry 

 during the month of June. Quaint and homely little 

 sayings such as these, simple as they may at first 

 sight appear, are often great aids to the memory, and 

 have mostly been put together by persons of -much 

 observation and discernment. Those who study 

 practically natural history, have very often occasion 

 to admire and commend their accuracy. 



The most curious, wonderful, and extraordinary 

 circumstance in the natural history of this bird, and 

 that upon whicli all its other peculiarities depend, is 

 ; the strange, and at present quite unaccountable habit 

 which it exhibits, of invariably depositing its eggs in 

 the nest of some other species, at no time, nor under 

 any circumstance whatever, constructing a nest and 

 hatching its wvu eggs like other birds ; the same is 

 also said (and is probable) of the other typical species 

 of Cuculus, but at present this requires some confir- 

 mation. The American and other Coccyzi, which, 

 except in having rather a stronger bill, and in being 

 -a little longer in the tarsus, approximate very closely 

 to the true cuckoos in their general structure, build 

 nests and tend their progeny like the other feathered 

 tribes around them. The only decided and well 

 authenticated instance of a similar deviation from 

 ordinary rule, occurs in the cattle-bird or cow-bunting 

 (Malothrus pecans, Swainson) of North America, a 

 bird of the starling family, and of which a rather 

 detailed account (chiefly taken from Wilson's Ame- 

 rican Ornithology) has already been given in its 

 alphabetical -situation in this work. That species, 

 however, from its abundance and much greater fami- 

 liarity, is easily enough studied, and its various pecu- 

 liarities are all much more satisfactorily elicited than 

 are those of the European cuckoo. The latter is one 

 of the very shyest of the shy ; its history has been 

 much obscured by scribblers, and we are a great 

 deal indebted to chance observers for the facts that 

 have been brought together concerning it. 



Like the American cattle-bird, the European 

 cuckoo (as indeed might be anticipated) does not 

 pair, nor, according to the common acceptation of the 

 term, is it a polygamous species, but all of them 

 live together in a 'promiscuous state of concubinage. 

 Tied down by no duties of incubation, they are 

 perhaps bound to no particular spot, but wander 

 without control throughout the summer. This the 

 naturalist of Selborne alludes to in one of his poetic 

 effusions 



" And listen to the vagrant cuckoo's tale." 



- Yet, though it be undoubtedly difficult in places 



where cuckoos are abundant to identify any particular 

 individual, unless, indeed, it be an albino, or otherwise 

 conspicuously distinguishable, we are inclined to think 

 from repeated observation, that each cuckoo does 

 generally confine itself within a certain range. The 

 male probably locates himself i?i a particular situation 

 in a spot congenial to his habits, where food is to be 

 obtained plentifully ; and if a sufficient number of the; 

 other sex there answer to his call, he probably does 

 not wander far from the place. We have arrived at 

 this conclusion, from having observed always* Certain 

 number of these birds in a particular spot. The 

 female cuckoo, however, may probably sometimes 

 wander a considerable distance when searching for a 

 suitable nest to deposit her egg in. 



Strangely enough, the number of eggs which the 

 cuckoo lays in the course of a season, has never beeu 

 very satisfactorily determined ; which might easily 

 enough be done, by dissecting a sufficient number of' 

 females during the spring and summer months. 



" It is possible," says Montagu, " that some may 

 lay two lots of eggs during their stay with us, but 

 then we have reason to believe there is a considerable 

 space of time between the first and second lot. In 

 two or three females, dissected at the time they first 

 began to lay, we could only discover four or five eggs 

 that could possibly' be laid successively ; from the 

 smallest of which, to what may be termed the 

 secondary eggs, there was a' sudden break oft', not a 

 gradual decrease of size." A young cuckoo of the 

 preceding year (known by not having entirely thrown 

 off its nestling feathers), which the writer of this 

 examined on the twenty-second of May, contained in 

 the ovary three largely developed eggs, which un- 

 questionably would have been laid on the following 

 consecutive days ; there were also sixteen or eighteen 

 others (besides a multitude of small ones) enlarged to 

 the size of mustard seeds, but a competent physio- 

 logist* is of opinion, that these would not have been 

 laid the same season, their increase of size being 

 occasioned by the determination of blood to the 

 parts ; they presented no vascular appearance, and it 

 is probable that, after the breeding season, they 

 would have diminished to their former minutenessf. 



. The cuckoo's egg is remarkably small for the size 

 of the bird, hardly equalling in this respect that of the 

 skylark ; it is therefore somewhat in proportion to 

 the small nests into which it is commonly introduced. 

 Those parts, also, qua martinis tribmmtnr, are at all 

 times most disproportionately small in this species, 

 even less than in the common sparrow ; but whether 

 this has any connexion with the size of the egg 

 is difficult to determine. The American coccyzi, 

 according to Wilson, have the egg " proportionable 

 to the size of the bird," and it would therefore perhaps 

 be worth while to notice further the internal structure 

 of the males of these. The egg of the common 

 cuckoo is usually of a very oval form, of a reddish 

 white, thickly sprinkled over and blotched with rufous 

 and darker brown spots, which are rather more 

 numerous at the larer end ; like most other eggs, 

 however, it is subject to some variation. 



Contrary to the usual opinion, the female cuckoo 

 appears to deposit her egg into the first suitable nest 

 she happens to find, whatever may be the species of 

 bird to which it belongs, whether granivorous or (like 



W. YarreU, Esq. 



t The ovary in question is now preserved in spirits. 



