on Cuckoos in captivity.



33



“ will make you feed them a long while after they in reality can

“ help themselves. Moreover, they are most dull, uninteresting

“ creatures, which sit in a sleepy, half-sulky fashion in one

“ corner of their cage, the remainder of the time being spent in

“ administering to their inordinate appetite. . . . You will


“ find the requirements of this bird, as far as food is concerned,

“ simply insatiable, but unfortunately it has no redeeming

“ properties to offer you in return for your hospitality. . . .


“ It should be provided with a box-shaped cage, ... a false

“ bottom being especially insisted on, in consequence of its dirty

“ habits ; but whatever you do, you will find the wretched cap-

“ tive always wallowing in its dirt, after—in consequence of its

“ continued restlessness — it has broken pretty nearly every quill

“ in its body.”


Our Cuckoo, then, is no cage-bird, and even in freedom its

well-known parasitic habits bring it no good-will, but on the other

hand it is really not quite as black as it has been painted by some,

especially by the poets, if one may judge from the following, which

I find in Phil. Robinson’s ‘ The Poets’ Birds ’:


“ The idle Cuckoo, having made a feast*


“ On sparrow’s eggs, layes down her own i’ th’ nest.


“ The silly bird, she owns it, hatches, feeds it,


“ Protects it from the weather, clocks and breeds it;


“ But w T hen this gaping monster hath found strength

“ To shift without a helper, she at length,


“Not caring for the tender care that bred her,


“ Forgets her parent, kills the bird that fed her.”


Quarles, ‘Divine Fancies.’


We will now turn to the foreign Cuckoos, but before taking

those about which I have found definite records, I will note one

other, of which I find a couple of casual mentions, which should

bring it within the scope of this article. This is the Great Spotted

Cuckoo ( Coccystes glandarius). This bird (or rather the genus



* [The idea that Cuckoos ate other birds’ eggs no doubt arose from the fact that they

have been seen when in the act of taking their own eggs into their mouths,

after laying them on the ground, since it is almost impossible, and often

quite, for a cuckoo to lay its egg in the nests of such birds as wagtails,

robins, etc.— Ed.]



