396 INSESSORES. CUCULUS. 



phaus (ViEiLL.), belonging to the warmer regions of the 

 ancient continent, with the bill very large and arched, form- 

 ing the medium by which this family becomes immediately 

 connected with the Ramphastida, the family with which the 

 circle of the tribe commences ; Leptosomus (VIEILL.) repre- 

 sented by Cuculus afer (Auct.). The genus Crotophaga 

 (LiNN.), also appears to stand upon the confines of the Cu- 

 culidae, and to connect them with the Musophagid< 9 a fami- 

 ly, according to Mr SWAIN SON, belonging to the Conirostral 

 tribe, buf included in the present one by Mr VIGORS " On 

 the Arrangement of the Genera of Birds." 



In Britain we find but one species of the genus Cuculus, 

 as now restricted, a periodical summer visitant, well known 

 from its peculiar cry, and as being the harbinger of spring. 



GENUS CUCULUS, LINN. CUCKOO. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



BILL rather compressed, slightly curved, of mean length. 

 Gape wide. Lower mandible following the curve of the up- 

 per. Nostrils basal, round, margined by a naked and pro- 

 minent membrane. Wings of mean length, acuminate, the 

 first quill-feather short, the third being the longest. Tail 

 more or less wedge-shaped. Feet with two toes before, and 

 two behind, the outer hind-toe partly reversible ; the anterior 

 toe joined at the base, those posterior entirely divided. Tarsi 

 very short, feathered a little below the knee. 



The members of this genus are natives of the warmer 

 regions of the Old Continent. They construct no nest, but 

 deposit their eggs in the nests of small birds, to whom they 

 consign the care of hatching and rearing their young. They 

 are fierce in disposition, and live solitary. The food of the 

 genus is principally composed of the larvae of the lepidopte- 



rous order of insects. 



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