1 90 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



was a young cuckoo in the nest. The mother bird was feeding 

 it a very large grasshopper. It was interesting to notice how 

 she did it. She alighted near the side of the nest, and for 

 awhile sat very still and kept constantly eyeing the young 

 one. She seemed to be crushing the forepart of the grass- 

 hopper, preparatory to giving it to the little one head fore- 

 most. In feeding it her beak went far into its mouth as though 

 she was assisting it to swallow the grasshopper. The process 

 was a slow one. Five mornings afterward, I noticed the little 

 one was on a lower limb of the tree. No doubt it had fallen 

 out of the shabby nest. The mother bird saw me and warned 

 her baby much as a hen does her chickens when danger is near. 

 It was amusing to see the little one stand up erect, and remain 

 stock still: When I came home that night the little one was 

 gone. Another bird tragedy! No doubt a cat had caught it. 

 The distress of the mother bird was great. I shall never forget 

 the incident. She went over the cedar, from its topmost to its 

 lowest branches. She flew from limb to limb, and in the most 

 pathetic way called for her baby. Then she would sit and eye 

 and scan every branch of the tree. When she had gone over 

 the cedar, she flew to the near-by trees and examined them. 

 Near midnight I heard her calling for her lost one ; and when 

 I came home the next evening she was still searching for it. 



The cuckoo is an insectivorous bird, and one of the best 

 friends of the farmer and the orchardist. Many of them know 

 it as the rain crow, because of the fact that its guttural call is 

 most frequently heard in moist, cloudy weather. Many of our 

 worst insect pests, in passing through the caterpillar state, are 

 covered with spines as completely as the porcupine. For this 

 reason many of the insectivorous birds will not feed upon 

 them. And just here is where the value of the cuckoo comes 

 in, for it is its delight to attack these, eviscerate them and 

 then devour them. Prof. Forbush says : "The caterpillar habit 

 of the cuckoo is so well known that to see several cuckoos to- 

 gether is taken as a sign of the caterpillars' presence, and their 

 stomachs sometimes become lined and fettered with the hairs 

 of the caterpillars, of which they eat many destructive kinds." 



As Major Bendire says, the cuckoo "is decidedly aboreal 

 in its habits, and is rarely seen on the ground, where on ac- 



