The Zoologist— March, 1868. 1107 



to deter the general inquirer from entering upon a question which to 

 the ordinary observer will be found to be of considerable interest, and 

 to the out-door naturalist is worthy of most patient attention, as well as 

 diligent investigation ; and yet which, notwithstanding its deep 

 interest, and curious and extraordinary as it is, has probably never yet 

 come before the notice (I may almost venture to say) of any one in this 

 Society. 



Having thus introduced Dr. Baldamus and his paper, so that I need 

 not hereafter break the thread of my story, I will begin by saying a 

 few words upon other peculiarities of the cuckoo, before I come to the 

 chief subject of this article, the extraordinary colouring of its eggs. 



I have already, in my last paper on the "Ornithology of Wilts," 

 given some general account of the bird, so that I need now only 

 briefly recapitulate some of its chief characteristics. Thus I will 

 remind ray readers that it belongs to the large order of perching birds, 

 and to the tribe of climbers; that it is migratory, arriving in this 

 country in April, and leaving in July ; that its general appearance at a 

 short distance often leads the casual observer to mistake it for a hawk, 

 though a single glance at the small weak legs and feet, and the 

 straight powerless slender beak, would at once undeceive on a nearer 

 examination ; that, with the exception of the honey buzzard {Buteo 

 apivorus), it is the largest of British insectivorous birds;* for its food 

 consists of insects of many sorts, but more particularly of the several 

 species of hairy caterpillars which abound in the early summer, and 

 which long-haired caterpillars are rejected by almost all birds, with the 

 exception of the cuckoo ; so that it has been thought by some, that 

 the reason why that bird leaves the country so early is the failure, by 

 the middle of July, of its favourite food.f I may observe, too, that it 

 is the male bird alone which gives utterance to the peculiar note which 

 we hail so gladly as an announcement of spring, though, among other 

 popular errors, the following old couplet attributes the song to the 

 female : % — 



" The cuckoo is a pretty bird, and sings as she flies, 

 She brings us good tidings, and tells us no lies." 



Possibly, however, this may be only the indiscriminate use of the 

 masculine and feminine pronoun so common in Wiltshire : I am 



* Jesse's 'Gleanings of Natural History,' p. 125. 



f Wood's ' Illustrated Natural History,' vol. ii. p. 574. 



J 'Naturalist' for 1852, p. 84. 



