The Cuckoo. 34 i 



indebted to Mr. Joseph F. Hills, of Sudbury, Suffoll<, whose experience with the bird has been 

 considerable : — ■ 



"Although so much interesting matter has been written about the Cuckoo, there is probably 

 no common bird about which there is still so much to be learned. Unfortunately, however, 

 the keeping of Cuckoos in confinement throws but little light on their peculiarities in a wild 

 state ; for although I have hardly ever been without one during the last ten years, I know 

 little more about their natural habits than do those who have never kept one. As a bird for 

 the aviary it has but few attractions. Dull, heavy, and sluggish in its movements, it is 

 extremely awkward on the floor. Only during its natural flight is the bird at all active; and 

 it must have a large room to enable it to fly. 



" To those who wish to keep Cuckoos, there is no difficulty ; they are easily reared, and in 

 most parts of England easily obtained. No less than thirteen young Cuckoos were brought to 

 me during the season of 1878, and half a dozen in the following year. One was caught on 

 the 6th September, and was not more than three weeks old ; this is the latest time of the 

 year at which I ever heard of one of that age. No bird that I know of falls so readily into the 

 hands of boys, &c., as, when a fortnight or three weeks old, long before they can fly, they 

 scramble out of the nest or fall out in their anxiety to be fed. When one is secured there is 

 no trouble in getting it to take whatever in the way of food may be offered it. I have had 

 scores, but never had one that refused its food. Certainly, if they are over three or four weeks 

 old they will pick and fly very savagely ; it is therefore better to obtain one as young as 

 possible. The best food, I find, is raw beef chopped fine, with soaked bread and hard-boiled 

 eggs ; they will also eat earthworms, cockroaches, and snails, which latter they will partially 

 extract from the shell without breaking it. If, however, you have an aviary in which you 

 keep any insectivorous birds. Wagtails, Hedge Sparrows, &c., these make capital foster-parents 

 The easiest plan is to place the young Cuckoo in the aviary, when its plaintive cry and (I was 

 about to say) insinuating appeals for food will soon secure for it the consideration of some of 

 the other inmates, who will quickly commence feeding it, giving it all that it will take, which, 

 by the way, is all that is offered to it. Instances are common enough where young birds of 

 various species have been placed in cages and aviaries, and have been reared by some of the 

 other inmates ; but the extraordinary charm which the young Cuckoo appears to possess, of 

 inducing other birds, many of them not a third of its size, to take compassion upon it, and 

 attend to its wants, is something wonderful. 



" The Cuckoo in confinement, if not in its wild state, will allow itself to be fed many 

 weeks and even months after it is well able to provide for itself It moults very late, and 

 during the moulting period most of them die, unless they are kept warm. They cannot stand 

 the cold so well as many of our migratory birds. A large aviary with other inmates is best 

 for them. I have never found them quarrelsome ; they are too lazy, and would rather be 

 fed than fight. They drink a good deal, and are exceedingly dirty, but I never knew one 

 to wash itself, and have always taken them in hand and washed them when they required it. 

 Some writers state that they do bathe in confinement, but that has not been my experience. 

 I never had one which gave out the peculiar call so familiar to us all." 



The Nightjar, like the Cuckoo, is a very difficult bird to keep, and must also be reared 

 from the nest. We have kept them as long as twelve months, but it is rather a dull bird, 

 as its name denotes, becoming more lively at night than it is in the daytime, and therefore 

 very likely to disturb the rest of the birds in the aviary. It should be fed as a Nightingale. 



