164 NATURAL HISTORY. 



my secretion. If the insect be of any size it is impaled, 

 and if very small, this glutinous substance makes it ad- 

 here to the tongue.* 



268. The Cuckoo family is quite an extensive one, con- 

 sisting, for the most part, of inhabitants of the warmer 

 regions. The species which in spring migrates to Great 

 Britain, and is so common there, has the curious habit 

 of laying its eggs in the nests of other birds of various 

 kinds, making them perform for her the incubation need- 

 ed to hatch them. The Cuckoo of this country, though 

 very similar in most respects, has no such habit. The 

 young European Cuckoos seem to catch the spirit of the 

 parent, for they contrive to cast out of the nest the young 

 of the bird by which they have been hatched. But, as 

 they do this slyly, the foster-mother, knowing nothing of 

 it, does not cease her tender care of the intruders. 



269. The fourth order of birds is that of the Rasores, 

 or Scratchers. The food of these birds consists chiefly 

 of grains and seeds, and they accordingly pass most of 

 their time on the ground. They differ in this respect 

 from the birds that we have already noticed, which live 

 mostly on the wing or on trees. Accordingly, the Ra- 

 sores have little power of flight, and the muscles of the 

 wings are much smaller in proportion to the size of the 

 body than those of the Perchers and other birds of flight. 

 Their legs are sufficiently long to enable them to walk 

 well, and their feet are armed with short stout nails fitted 

 for scratching in search of food. As their food is hard, 

 and they have no teeth for masticating it, there is a crop 

 for macerating it, and a gizzard for reducing it to pulp. 



* It is stated by Mr. Wood that these birds do not injure trees 

 that the insects which they seek for are in decayed branches and 

 stumps, and, guided by instinct, the Woodpecker bores only in these. 

 This, however, is not so, and I have this summer seen in my garden 

 a thrifty pear-tree most curiously marked by the borings of this bird. 

 The holes were up the trunk 'and out upon some of the branches in 

 horizontal rows, from five to eight in each row. 



