CUCKOO 95 



parasitic habit itself. Another factor connected with this habit may be the 

 relations of the sexes to one another. By some it has been asserted that a male 

 cuckoo associates with several females, while others, on the contrary, believe that 

 the female mates with several males. The latter is the more probable view, for 

 the males seem to wander less than the females, and these again appear to be 

 less numerous than the males, so that in the resorts of one female there would 

 be several males which are said to be visited one after the other by the females. 

 If this were so their parasitism might be excused, for the female would 

 want a considerable extent of ground, on account of the necessity of deposit- 

 ing her eggs in suitable nests ; she would not be able to remain continually 

 with the same male and, as the males apparently do not like to move about, 

 each would be obliged to associate with several females. The males drive 

 away other males, and the females other females from their haunts ; but the 

 females when wandering about and traversing the feeding-grounds of several 

 males, are well received and accompanied by them through their respective 

 territories. 



Quarrels between females are much more violent than those between males. 

 The former attack each other furiously, wound each other with their beaks and 

 claws, and often fall fighting to the ground. Males as well as females perch during 

 their wanderings regularly in certain trees, and always on the thickest branches, 

 for the cuckoo flies quickly enough, but is awkward on the ground, and cannot 

 perch on slender twigs. The cuckoo, notwithstanding its climbing toes, cannot 

 climb a tree, although it may sometimes cling to the trunk in pursuit of small 

 insects, and it therefore prefers to seek its food on arable lands and meadows with 

 short grass. Owing to its flight resembling that of a falcon, and its plumage 

 that of the sparrow-hawk, the cuckoo is often mistaken for one of these, not 

 only by man, but perhaps also by the small birds, which, when they have an 

 opportunity, tease and mob it almost as they do an owl. 



The male repeats his cuck-oo always several times in succession, in the day- 

 time not more than twenty or thirty times ; after midnight, however, and at dawn, 

 he repeats his call for several minutes, often a hundred times in succession. Later 

 on he is not heard, but at sunrise he begins again, and after that he enters on his 

 daily round. Sometimes he grows hoarse from calling too much ; sometimes 

 between the cuck-oo may be heard a sound like the hoarse laughter of a human 

 being; sometimes a preliminary cough, as if clearing the throat, but this is only 

 audible when quite close to the bird. It is well known that the froth produced 

 on stems of grass by the cuckoo-spit insect, one of the frog-hoppers, a family of 

 the Rhynchota, is popularly supposed to be the cuckoo's saliva. When calling, the 

 cuckoo generally sits amid the thickest foliage of a tree, or on a dry bough, but 

 it also calls when rising, or flying with the female to a distant place. The male 

 accompanies his song with gestures peculiar to himself ; nodding his head to and 

 fro, lowering his wings and turning up his tail, and all the time calling out in every 

 direction his cuck-oo, which may be heard at a distance of half a mile. Sometimes 

 he grows agitated, when he depresses his wings though they still move, wags his 

 fan-like tail up and down, turns it to either side, clears his throat, and bows at 

 every call. If rain be imminent he calls a great deal in the morning, but after 



