THE CUCKOO. 



XXX. 



MONSIEUR HERISSANT, a French anatomist, 

 seems persuaded that he has discovered the reason 

 why cuckoos do not hatch their own eggs ; the 

 impediment, he supposes, arises from the internal 

 structure of their parts, which incapacitates them 

 for incubation. According to this gentleman, the 

 crop, or craw, of a cuckoo, does not lie before the 

 sternum at the bottom of the neck, as in the gal- 

 lina, columbce, &c. but immediately behind it, on 

 and over the bowels, so as to make a large pro- 

 tuberance in the belly J . 



Induced by this assertion, we procured a 

 cuckoo ; and cutting open the breast-bone, and 

 exposing the intestines to sight, found the crop 

 lying as mentioned above. The stomach was 

 large and round, and stuffed hard, like a pin- 

 cushion, with food, which, upon nice examination, 

 we found to consist of various insects ; such as 

 small scarabs, spiders, and dragon-flies; the last of 

 which we have seen cuckoos catching on the wing 

 as they were just emerging out of the aurelia 

 state. Among this farrago also were to be seen 

 maggots, and many seeds, which belonged either 

 to gooseberries, currants, cranberries, or some 

 such fruit ; so that these birds apparently subsist 

 on insects and fruits ; nor was there the least ap- 

 pearance of bones, feathers, or fur, to support the 

 idle notion of their being birds of prey 2 . 



1 Histoire de 1'Academie Royale, 1752. 



1 When these birds have fed much on some of the large 

 hairy caterpillars so common on the northern muirs, the 

 stomach becomes filled and coated with the short hairs, 

 which may have assisted in raising the opinion that they feed 

 on small animals. W. J, 



