CUCULIN.E. COCCYZUS. 83 



pasture-grounds, woods and thickets, in upland valleys, as 

 well as open moors destitute of trees. Being frequently seen 

 abroad at early dawn, sometimes very late in the evening, 

 and having been heard to emit its cry at all hours of the night, 

 it appears to be somewhat nocturnal in its habits. In the 

 structure of its digestive organs it is very intimately allied to 

 the Owls and Goatsuckers. Its food is also similar to them, 

 consisting of insects, and during part of the season of hairy 

 caterpillars. The eggs are very small, averaging from ten to 

 eleven-twelfths of an inch in length, from eight to nine- 

 twelfths in breadth, white, greyish-white, or reddish-white, 

 speckled with ash-grey or greyish-brown. They are deposited 

 singly in the nest of the Meadow Pipit, Hedge Chanter, Pied 

 "Wagtail, or some other small bird. When the eggs are 

 hatched, the young Cuckoo throws out of the nest in succes- 

 sion the young of its foster-parents, which are left to perish, 

 and is fed by them until its departure in September. 



Common Cuckoo. 



Cuculus canorus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 168. Cuculus canorus, 

 Temm.Man. d'Ornith. i. 381. Cuculus canorus, Grey Cuckoo, 

 MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, iii. 109. 



GENUS XXII. COCCYZUS. COWCOW. 



Bill nearly as long as the head, slender, arcuato-declinate, 

 broader than high at the base, compressed toward the end, 

 acute ; upper mandible with the dorsal line arcuate, the 

 ridge narrow, the edges with a slight notch close to the 

 declinate tip ; gape-line arcuate. Tongue very slender, 

 emarginate at the base, with long slender papillae, the edges 

 lacerated toward the end, the tip rather acute ; oesophagus 

 rather wide, tapering ; proventriculus rather large ; stomach 

 large, round, with the muscular coat very thin, and com- 

 posed of a single series of small fasciculi, the cuticular 

 lining soft and rugous ; intestine of moderate length, rather 

 wide ; coeca large, oblong. Nostrils oblong, half-closed by 

 a membrane. Eyes of moderate size. Feet short ; tarsus 

 feathered one-third down, rather stout, with seven broad 

 scutella ; toes small, broad beneath ; the first very small, 

 the third longest, the fourth longer than the second, and 

 reversed ; claws rather small, arched, much compressed, 

 laterally grooved, acute. Plumage soft and blended ; wings 

 of moderate length, pointed ; the first quill a third shorter 



