THE CUCKOOS. 20 
“Here, then, is a whole species, I may say genus, of birds, which Proy- 
idence seems to have formed for the protection of our fruit and forest trees 
from the ravages of vermin, which every day destroys millions of those nox- 
ious insects that would otherwise blast the hopes of the husbandman; they 
even promote the fertility of the tree, and, in return, are proscribed by those 
who ought to have been their protectors, and incitements and rewards held 
out for their destruction! Let us examine better into the operations of 
nature, and many of our mistaken opinions and groundless prejudices will 
be abandoned for more just, enlarged, and humane modes of thinking.” 
Famiry Cucutipx®. Cuckoos. 
My. Swainson remarks of the Cuculide, — 
“So faintly is the scansorial structure indicated in these birds, that but 
for their natural habits, joined to the position of their toes, we should not 
suspect they were so intimately connected with the more typical groups of 
the tribe, as they undoubtedly are. They neither use their bill for climbing, 
like the Parrots, nor for making holes in trees, like the Woodpecker ; neither 
can they mount the perpendicular stems, like the Certhiade, or Creepers ; 
and yet they decidedly climb, although in a manner peculiar to themselves. 
Their flight is so feeble, from the extreme shortness of their wings, that it is 
evidently performed with difficulty, and it is never exercised but to convey 
them from one tree to another, and these flights, in the thickly-wooded tracts 
of tropical America, are, of course, very short: they alight upon the high- 
est boughs, and immediately begin to explore the horizontal and slanting 
ramifications with the greatest assiduity, threading the most tangled mazes, 
and leaving none unexamined. All soft insects inhabiting such situations 
lying in their route become their prey, and the quantities that are thus 
destroyed must be very great. In passing from one bough to another, they 
simply hop, without using their wings, and their motions are so quick, that 
an unpractised observer, even if placed immediately beneath the tree, would 
soon lose sight of the bird. 
“Warm and temperate climates of both hemispheres are the chosen 
haunts of the Cuckoos. The species peculiar to North America build their 
nests, and rear their own young, while most of the others are parasitic.” 
Of one species, the Black-billed Cuckoo (Coceygus erythrophthalmus) 
is probably the best known. It is found in most portions of the Eastern 
United States, and isin many localities common. In New England, it arrives 
from the south about the first week in May, and, like the Yellow-billed 
Cuckoo, the males precede the females. We have examined numbers of the 
first birds that arrived in different seasons, and they were invariably males, 
the females making their appearance about ten days or a fortnight later. The 
