IV. 

 THE CUCKOO AND HIS KINDRED. 



THE Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) of our 

 English woods and fields is the typical species of a 

 group of birds which possess an exceptional interest 

 for the ornithologist. The birds contained in the 

 genus Cuculus of Linnaeus number some thirty- 

 five or forty species, and form an important group 

 in the well-defined family CUCULID^:. Naturalists 

 are still much divided in their opinions concerning 

 the affinities of the Cuckoo, but most authorities 

 agree that- the MUSOPHAGID^ (or Plantain-eaters), a 

 group of African birds, are their nearest surviving 

 relations. With respect to their more distant 

 affinities systematists are far less unanimous. By 

 some they are associated with the Woodpeckers, 

 Rollers, Kingfishers, and other Picarian groups ; by 

 others with certain of the Game Birds and with the 

 Rails. They have recently been associated with the 

 Passeres in company with the Pigeons. That they 

 are by no means distantly related to the Galliformes 



