THE COMMON CUCKOO. 325 



It feeds almost entirely on Grasshoppers, and frequents the open, scrubby tracts only. I have never 

 once seen it in larger forests."* 



The Malkohas are another remarkable group of the Bush Cuckoos, and are found throughout 

 India, Ceylon, the Imlo-Malayan region and islands, as far as the Celebes. The genera differ princi- 

 pally in the shape of the nostril ; and although differences of structure are usually considered 

 sufficient characters on which to found distinctions of genus, some ornithologists are of opinion 

 that the variation in the form of the nostril only separates them as species. One of the most 

 remarkable of these Bush Cuckoos is the Carpococcyx radiatus of Borneo, which, when alive, is 

 stated by Mr. Wallace to resemble a Pheasant in appearance and gait. It lives much on the ground, 

 and is often caught by the Malays in the snares which they set for Argus Pheasants and other game- 

 birds. In Madagascar they are represented by the Couas (Sericosomus), of which there are no less 

 than ten species found in that island. They are the inhabitants of the Palestriiia forests, where their 

 monotonous notes are often heard. The cry of the Blue Cuckoo is said by Messrs. Pollen and Van Dam 

 to resemble the syllables cir-cir-cir, while that of the Crested Coua (S. cristatus) is toc-toc-toc. When 

 calling, the latter bird raises its crest and flaps its tail and wings. Its flight is difficult and generally 

 descending, and the bird never flaps its wings when it flies. It is ordinarily seen on the lower 

 branches of the trees, and loves to repose during the great heat of the day in the sheltered parts of 

 the trees, resting on the branches and puffing out its feathers. 



In America there are several allied forms of Bush Cuckoos, many of which frequent the ground, 

 one of the most interesting being the Geococcyx californianm, which is called the " Road-runner," 

 and is a bird of such powers of running that it is sometimes hunted on horseback and pursued with 

 hounds, a test of fleetness in which it is said often to make a longer race than its pursuers 

 anticipated. 



THE COMMON CUCKOO (Cucuhis canorus). 



The true Cuckoos, of which the English bird is the type, differ from the Bush Cuckoos in 

 being more Accipitrine, or Hawk-like, in their appearance, and having long thigh-feathers, like the 

 majority of the birds of prey. The nostril is swollen and rounded. It would be easy to write a 

 complete book on this mysterious bird, whose habits and cry have rendered it an object of interest 

 in all countries and from very early times. The popular superstition concerning the nestling 

 that the young Cuckoo, when sufficiently grown, and having no further use for the little foster- 

 parent to whose care it owed its life and well-being, used to devour the latter has often been 

 held up as an " awful example " to ungrateful children who become a burden and a shame to their 

 parents when they are unable to provide for them any longer. The idea of the young Cuckoo 

 devouring its protector is no doubt erroneous, and, as Brehm puts it, has arisen from the oft- 

 recurring spectacle of a little Wren or a diminutive Gold-crest placing food in the wide-gaping 

 mouth of the young Cuckoo, which, indeed, without much stretch of the imagination, might swallow 

 it. In Mr. Gould's " Birds of Great Britain " there is a picture showing the denouement of the 

 young Cuckoo's story, when, still callow and blind, it is represented as disposing of some unfortunate 

 little Tree Pipits which were hatched along with it in the same nest. This incident was 

 sketched by Mrs. Hugh Blackburn, who thus describes the occurrence : " The nest (which we 

 watched last June, after finding the Cuckoo's egg in it) was that of the common Meadow Pipit 

 (Titlark, Mosscheeper), and had two Pipit's eggs besides that of the Cuckoo. It was below a 

 heather bush on the declivity of a low abrupt bank or highland hill-side, in Moidart. At one 

 visit the Pipits were found to be hatched, but not the Cuckoo. At the next visit, which was after 

 an interval of forty-eight hours, we found the young Cuckoo alone in the nest, and both the 

 young Pipits lying down the bank, about ten inches from the margin of the nest, but quite 

 lively after being warmed in the hand. They were replaced in the nest beside the Cuckoo, 

 which struggled about till it got its back under one of them, when it climbed backwards directly 

 up the open side of the nest, and hitched the Pipit from its back on to the edge. It then stood 

 quite upright on its legs, which were straddled wide apart, with the claws firmly fixed half-way 

 down the inside of the nest among the interlacing fibres of which the nest was woven, and 



* "Stray Feathers," 1877, p. 385. 

 136 



