138 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN BIRDS. 



The House-Sparrows, Chaffinches, noisy be- 

 came;— 

 But their notes, void of melody, always the same. 



other varieties, one with body varied with reddish, the other 

 grey, covered with a few white dots. Inhabits Europe, Asia, 

 and Africa; said to feed on insects, and the larva of moths; 

 migrates. Is heard towards the end of April, and generally 

 ceases to sing about the beginning of July. I heard it at Lew- 

 ishani, in Kent, in the year 1824, on the 13th of that month ; it 

 has been heard in Norfolk as late as the last day of it. It would 

 seem, from these facts, that it is heard later in the south-easiern 

 portion of this island, than any where else. Flesh good. The 

 CDckoo is a bird with considerable powers of flight ; the body is 

 slender, wings and tail long ; the plumage, although unostenta- 

 tious, is yet handsome. 



Mr.YARREL, to whom we are indebted for an account of some 

 <;nrious facts relative to birds, and whose paper on the evolution 

 of the chick from the egg is alluded to in the Introduction, in- 

 forms me, that he has dissected many cuckoos ; that the stomach 

 is similar in structure to the woodpecker's; and, therefore, fitted 

 for the digestion of animal food only ; that the contents of the 

 stomach invariably indicate the presence of such food, namely, 

 the larviB of some insects. I cannot learn from any quarter that 

 the cuckoo has been kept alive in this country (like the nightin- 

 gale) throughout the year. Our ignorance of its genuine food, or 

 the cold of the climate, or both, possibly, have prevented such 

 preservation. 



Another fact relative to this bird, for which I am indebted to 

 Mr. Yarrel, is, that its testes arc not larger than those of the 

 house-sparrow; and hence, Mr. Yarrel seems disposed to 

 infer, that the sexual organs in the cuckoo are in a very low 

 state of excitement. May not this account for the strange ano- 

 maly of this bird's laying its eggs in other birds' nests? 



The cuckoo neither makes a nest, nor hatches her own eggs; 



