CUCKOO. 6'05 



that shows itself very early. Long before it leaves the nest, it fre- 

 quently, when irritated, assumes the manner of a bird of prey, looks 

 ferocious, throws itself back, and pecks at any thing presented to it 

 with great vehemence, often at the same time making a chuckling 

 noise like a young hawk. Sometimes, when disturbed in a smaller 

 degree, it makes a kind of hissing noise, accompanied with a heav- 

 ing motion of the whole body *. The growth of the young cuckoo 

 is uncommonly rapid. The chirp is plaintive, like that of the 

 hedge-sparrow ; but the sound is not acquired from the foster-pa- 

 rent, as it is the same whether it be reared by the hedge-sparrow, 

 or any other bird. It never acquires the adult note during its stay 

 in this country. 



The stomachs of young cuckoos contain a great variety of food. 

 On dissecting one that was brought up by wagtails, and fed by them 

 at the time it was shot, though it was nearly of the size and fulness 

 of plumage of the parent-bird, I found in its stomach the following 

 substances. Flies and beetles of various kinds : small snails, with 

 their shells unbroken ; grasshoppers ; caterpillars ; part of a horse, 

 beau ; a vegetable substance, resembling bits of tough grass, rolled 

 into a ball ; the seeds of a vegetable that resembled those of the 

 goose grass. 



In the stomach of one fed by hedge-sparrows, the contents were 

 almost entirely vegetable ; such as wheat, small vetches, &c. But 

 this was the only instance of the kind I had ever seen, as these birds 

 in general feed the young cuckoo with scarcely any thing but ani- 

 mal food. However, it served to clear up a point which before had 

 somewhat puzzled me ; for having found the cuckoo's egg in the 

 nest of a green linnet, which begins very early to feed its young 

 with vegetable food, I was apprehensive, till I saw the fact, that this 

 bird would have been an unfit foster-parent for the young cuckoo. 

 The titlark, I observed, feeds it principally with grasshoppers. But 

 the most singular subtauce, so often met with in the stomachs of 

 young cuckoos, is a ball of hair curiously wound up. I have found 



* Young animals being deprived of other modes of defence, are probably en- 

 dowed with the power of exciting fear in their common enemies. If you but 

 slightly touch the young hedge-hog, for instance, before it becomes fully armed 

 with its prickly coat, the little animal jumps up with a sudden spring, and 

 imitates very closely the sound of the word, hush ! as we pronounce it in a loud 

 whisper. This disposition is apparent in many other animals. Orig. 



