306 VERTEBRATA. AVES. 



arrangement of the toes, and even this is partial, as 

 the outer toe is capable of being brought half round. 

 Yet there is a bird, the Gold-winged Woodpecker, 

 (P. Auratus^) which forms the connecting link be- 

 tween the two genera, and was actually placed by 

 Linnaeus in this genus. The beak of the Cuckoos 

 is arched, and flattened sidewise ; the tail is long, 

 and not used for climbing; the feet, notwithstand- 

 ing their form, are used for perching alone. They 

 feed on insects, and in temperate countries are birds 

 of passage, but they are diffused over both conti- 

 nents. They (at least the true Cuckoos) are re- 

 markable for the inexplicable instinct which prompts 

 the female to deposit her eggs, singly, in the nests 

 of other insect-eating birds, much smaller than her- 

 self, by whom the surreptitious offspring is reared 

 at the expense of the rightful family. Our own 

 species, (C. Canorus,) whose voice, so delightfully 

 associated with joyous summer, is well known, selects 

 for this office the Hedge-sparrow, Titlark, Redbreast, 

 Nightingale, and such like birds. There is reason to 

 believe that the egg is first laid, and carried to the 

 nest in the mouth of the mother. The habit, strange 

 as it is, is not confined to the Cuckoos ; for, besides 

 the various African species, there is an American 

 bird of a widely-different genus, the Cow-bunting, 

 (Icterus* Pecoris,) a species of Starling, which has 

 just the same propensity. 



Through the Honey-guides, (Indie ator,'\-) the Bar- 

 bets, (Bucco,) and a few other forms, we come to 

 the genus Trogon. 



* The Greek name of some bird. f Indico to point out. 



