194 HISTORY or 



Of this bird there are many kinds in arious parts of the 

 world, not only differing in their colours, but their s.ze. Bns- 

 on makes not less than twenty-eight sorts of them; but what 

 nalogy they bear to our EngUsh cuckoo I w.l not take upo, 

 L to determine. He talks of one, particularly of Braz.1, s 

 diking a most hornble noise in the forests ; which, as it should 

 s^fm must be a very different note from that by which our bird 

 is distinguished at home.* 



AMtnus.ii. ve , , , . -^ does not take place before the 



'"'^f ?lpTand thigg is dom ready for incubation before the n.d- 

 Tof May t^. re wourdn'o't be a sufficient length of time for the young to 

 K H t!hed' orTmaWng every allowance.) sufficiently fledged to accompany 

 ^r t btds a th^perild of their departure, which seldom or never ex- 

 the old bu-ds «t t^« P^™*? , ^he egg requires a fortnight's incuba- 



^^^rs:r:rs:^o::s?trr^^yauring.e^er 



in^s ate of torpidity, concealed in the hollows of trees, or m the thicke. 

 m *^*^*%^; 7P .;; o„e or two instances of such an occurrence are not 

 SLtXSTy upon which to brnld a general assertion ; those denuded 

 c^frofmenSed by W.i.louo„bv and Bewick as thus discovered, may 

 have bee^young birds of late hatchings, not svifficiently strong to eave th,> 

 counSevenatthelatestperiodofmigration. Attempts to rear the cucku,, 

 have oft^n been made, but hitherto imsuccessfully. as it never reaches to 

 thlsuccteding spring. The natural food of the cuckoo consists of insect, 

 thesucceemng p fe ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ lepidopterous order; one ot 



rfet fir^^t k lis, by passing it through the sharp tomia, or edges of its 

 TdiblefH^henadroHlycuts off the hinder end, and, by repeated jerks, 

 r tl/MerSr of the intestinal canal, after which it swallows it whole. 

 T I known notes of the cuckoo are confined to the male, the female 

 rhe ^«"-''"''^" ""'._:„_ n„i,e Tt is a bold and fierce bird, and when 

 rarel":;L\f:re>:rTy ;";r.ifiles its feathers, and defends itself with 



"f rEurope we possess but one specie, of the Cuckoo. Tn Africa there 

 fc a remarkable specie., called the Honey-guide Cuckoo, or Ind.cator.-lU 



