rrCT'LID.E — THE (ICKnos. 4^1 



four o^'iLjs laid before inculjatioii connnenced, and all liatelicd before others 

 we»*e deposited. Then the ]»areiits set'iued to depend, in no small dei^nee, 

 ujKin the warmth of the hodius of the older oHs])rini^' to eompensate to the 

 younger for their own neglect, as well a>^ for the ex]>ose<l and iiisullieient 

 warmth <»f tiie nest. I have re]>eatedlv Ibund in a nest three vouie' and 

 two eggs, one of the latter neaily fresh, one witli the eiid>rvo jmlf di'Velojted, 

 while of tiie young birds one would Ite just out <jf Mie shell, one half Hedged, 

 and one just ready to lly. My attenti<jn was first calle(l t(. these peculiari- 

 ties of hatching as early as l.s:>4, Ijy finding, in Cambiidge, in a nest with 

 three young birds, an v[S<j:^ which, instead of proving to be athlled, as I antici- 

 pated, was perfectly fresh, and evidently just laid. Subsecjuent observations 

 in successive seasons led to the conviction that both tliis sjn'citjs jind the 

 Black-billed Cuckoo share in these peculiarities, and that it is a general, but 

 not a universal practice. These facts were communicati'd to ^Ir. Audubon, 

 but not before his attention had been called to the same tiling. 



In referring to these })eculiarities of the American Cuckoo, Mr. Autlubon 

 finds in tliem a closely connecting link witli the Kurojtean bird, and ]\Ir. 

 Darwin, carrying still farther the same idea, finds in them also ihita i'or re- 

 garding our birds as only one remove from tlie vagaries of the European 

 Cuckoo. At the first glance there may seem to be some ]>lausibility in these 

 deductions. The mere a])ology for a nest of our Cuckoos and their alterna- 

 tions of laying and hatching may, to some extent, be reganled as but one 

 remove from the total neglect of the European to build any nest, making, 

 instead, successive depositions in the nests of otlier birds. lUit there are 

 other peculiarities of our Cuckoos to be taken into consideration, t(jtally 

 variant from the polygamous, unconjugal, and unparental iMuojK'an. Their 

 devotion to their mates and to their offspring, in which lioth sexes vie with 

 each other ; tlieir extended breeding-season, varying from one to nearly four 

 months, — all these characteristics sei)arate them by a long interval from 

 their namesakes of the Old AVorld. 



If the nests of the Cuckoos are incomplete and insufficient, so are also 

 those of the most exemplary of parents, the whole tribe of IMgeons, and, 

 like the latter, our Cuckoos more than atone for such deficiencies by the de- 

 voted fidelity with wdiich they adhere to their post of duty even in the face 

 of imminent dangers ; while, after the first offspring of the season have been 

 hatched, the warmth of their bodies becomes an additional protection from 

 the exposure of the bare jdatform on which they are deposited. 



The eggs of this species are of an oblong-oval shape, eciually obtuse 

 at either end, and measure 1.30 inches in length by 1.00 in breadth. 

 They vary considerably in size, their minimum breadth being .90 of an 

 inch, and the length 1.20 inches. Their color is a uniform light bluish- 

 green, extremely fugitive, and fading even in the closed drawer of a 

 cabinet. 



VOL. II. 61 



