442 The Cuckoo-like Birds 



THE CUCKOOS 



(Family Cuculida) 



Taking everything into account, the Cuckoos comprise a very remarkable and 

 interesting group of birds, being for the most part birds of shams and pretenses, 

 and ever seeking to convey the impression that they are other than they really 

 are. Thus the Drongo-Cuckoo of India so exactly imitates in size, form, and 

 color the King Crow, or Drongo-Shrike, that it is nearly impossible to distin- 

 guish them unless held in the hand. Some of the so-called Ground Cuckoos of 

 the Old World imitate Pheasants in gait and plumage, while others are hardly 

 to be distinguished from the smaller Toucans, and still others resemble small 

 Hawks, and take advantage of the resemblance also. In Central America the 

 so-called Squirrel Cuckoos (Piayd} strikingly resemble squirrels as they scurry 

 along limbs and jump from tree to tree. In notes, too, they often imitate other 

 birds, and Mr. Whitehead especially speaks of a Cuckoo found by himself in 

 North Borneo that had notes like those of a certain Barbet, and, he adds, "I 

 have often stalked the supposed Barbet and shot a Cuckoo." 



But the resemblance of plumage, voice, and habits between Cuckoos and 

 other birds by no means exhausts their peculiarities. The paternal instinct, 

 which is usually so highly developed in birds, is at a very low plane in the Cuck- 

 oos, since in perhaps a majority of the species the birds do not mate and are 

 parasitic, that is, they deposit their eggs in the nests of other birds and permit 

 their young to be reared by foster parents. And even the young seem to be born 

 with traits which, if developed in a human being, would brand him with the 

 mark of Cain, for more than once have they been observed to push a foster 

 brother over the edge of the nest ! 



European Cuckoo. As the parasitic habits of the European Cuckoo (Cu- 

 culus canorus) have perhaps been more closely studied than in any other species, 

 the following rather complete account may be given, quoted in the main from 

 Mr. W. H. Hudson's admirable "British Birds." He says: "One of the 

 strangest facts in the strange history of this bird is that the egg is not laid in the 

 nest in which it is found, but is carried by the Cuckoo in her bill and placed there. 

 It is very small for so large a bird, although much larger in most cases than the 

 eggs it is placed with, as its favorite nests in this country are all of small birds 

 Hedge-Sparrows, Reed-Warblers, Pied Wagtail, and Meadow Pipit. The eggs 

 are very variable, being dull greenish or dull reddish gray, with spots and mot- 

 tlings of a deeper shade. In some instances the Cuckoo's egg resembles in color 

 the eggs it is placed with, and it is thought by some naturalists that the female 

 Cuckoo invariably deposits her eggs in the nests of one species. As a rule only 

 one egg is laid in a nest, and a few days after the eggs are hatched the young 

 Cuckoo gets rid of his foster brother by getting him on to his back, which is broad 

 and hollow, and throwing him over the side of the nest. If any unhatched eggs 

 remain in the nest, he gets rid of them in the same way." This habit of eject- 



