HABITS OF THE CUCKOO. G7 



several times told by the country people that there 

 certainly is some bird having this habit ; and my 

 assistant in collecting-, who is a very accurate per- 

 son, found a nest of the sparrow of this country 

 (Zonotrichia matutina), with one egg in it larger 

 than the others, and of a different colour and shape. 

 In North America there is another species of Mo- 

 lothrus (M. pecoris), which has a similar cuckoo- 

 like habit, and which is most closely allied in every 

 respect to the species from the Plata, even in such 

 ti-ifling peculiarities as standing on the backs of 

 cattle ; it differs only in being a little smaller, and 

 in its plumage and eggs being of a slightly different 

 shade of colour. This close agi'eement in struc- 

 ture and habits, in representative species coming 

 from opposite quarters of a gi-eat continent, always 

 strikes one as interesting, though of common oc- 

 currence. 



Mr. Swainson has well remarked,* that with the 

 exception of the Molothrus pecoris, to which must 

 be added the M. Niger, the cuckoos are the only 

 birds which can be called truly parasitical ; name- 

 ly, such as " fasten themselves, as it were, on an- 

 other living animal, whose animal heat brings their 

 young into life, whose food they live upon, and 

 whose death would cause theirs during the period 

 of infancy." It is remarkable that some of the 

 species, but not all, both of the Cuckoo and Mo- 

 lothrus, should agree in this one strange habit of 

 their parasitical propagation, whilst opposed to 

 each other in almost every other habit : the molo- 

 thrus, like our starling, is eminently sociable, and 

 lives on the open plains without art or disguise : the 

 cuckoo, as every one knows, is a singularly shy 

 bird ; it frequents the most retired thickets, and 

 feeds on fruit and catei-pillars. In sti'ucture also 

 * Magazine of Zoology and Botany, vol. i., p. 217. 



