THE CUCKOOS. a7 
* Attention was called to this, that the hair with which it is lined might be 
observed. From its close adhesion to the inner surface of the stomach, and 
from the regularity with which it is arranged, Mr. Thompson was at first 
disposed to consider this hair as of spontaneous growth; but part of the 
stomach being subjected to maceration in water, and afterwards viewed 
through a microscope of high power, the hairs proved, to the entire satis- 
faction of Mr. Owen and himself, to be altogether borrowed from the larve 
of the tiger-moth (Arect’a caja), the only species found in the stomachs of 
several Cuckoos, from different parts of the north of Ireland, which were 
examined by Mr. Thompson, in the months of May and June, 1833, and 
whose stomachs were similarly coated.” (Proceedings Zodl. Soc., 1839, 
p- 29.) 
The well-known notes of the Cuckoo are confined to the male, the female 
making only a chattering noise. 
The singular habit of the Cuckoo, in depositing its eggs in the nests of 
other birds, is too well substantiated to admit of a doubt; the nests usually 
chosen are those of the Hedge Sparrow, Titlark, White Throat, Wagtail, &e. 
The egg is very small in comparison with the size of the Cuckoo, scarcely 
exceeding that of a common Chaflinch. When the young Cuckoo is hatched, 
and has acquired a little strength, guided by the instinct of self-preservation 
it dislodges all its weaker companions by insinuating itself under them, and, 
with a sort of jerk, forces them overboard. Thus it secures to itself the 
exclusive attention of its dupes of foster-parents. Gilbert White mentions 
a young Cuckoo found in the nest of a Titlark, which he describes as being 
very fierce and pugnacious, pursuing his finger, as he teased it, for many 
feet from the nest, and sparring and buffeting with its wings like a game- 
cock ; and Selby alludes to the same bold and pugnacious disposition. 
Many attempts have been made to keep the Cuckoo alive in captivity, 
and several have lived, with care, to the middle of winter, when they have 
died. Mr. Thompson, however, instances two exceptions; one of these 
lived for more than a year at Cranmore, near Belfast, the residence of John 
Templeton, Esq.: it was procured on the 26th of July, 1820, and died, in 
consequence of an accident, January 10, 1822. It was originally taken 
from a Titlark’s nest. “Its engaging manners,” says Mr. Templeton, “ were 
the delight of the whole family and admiration of strangers. It was gen- 
erally fed on hard-boiled eges, and occasionally on caterpillars: it would 
sometimes eat forty or fifty at a time of the Papilio Brasside; it, how- 
ever, showed a decided preference for rough ones, as those of the Papilio 
Urtice. A seeming treat was a little mouse, about one quarter grown, 
which it would hold in its bill and beat against the ground, or anything hard, 
until the animal became soft, when it exhibited great powers of extending 
