E 98 3 



Genus XIX. C U C K O W. 



N* 47. Grey-headed C. N''48. Sonnerat's C. 



I- Common Cuckow, Ge>i. Sja. ii. p. 509. N° i. — Jr^. Zool. ii. p. 266. A. 



^UCKOW^ Cuculuscanorus, 5»-»a. N'>36.— Ma/Z^r, Nops— Gf5rf?iJ«>, p. 165. — 



Sep-p Vog, pLin p. i ij.—Faun. Arag. p. 73. 



1 AM informed, by an accurate obferver of £k|-///?' birds, and their 

 manners*, that the time of the Cuckow'& coming is almoft to 

 a certainty on the tenth or twelfth o^ April, and that the males ar- 

 rive firft. In the ftomach of thefe he has more than once ob- 

 ferved feveral of the caterpillars of the Fen Moth f , which is large, 

 and no doubt a delicate morfel. 



Of the birds of the firft year, fcarce two feem alike : in fome 

 the bars are doubly more numerous than in others ; and in one I 

 obferved this year, fent to me by Mr. Boys, of Sandwich, the 

 ground-colour was of a brownifh blue, I have alfo been inform- 

 ed, that now and then a bird has been met with, at the very firfl: 

 ^ coming in fpring, in which the ferruginous ground-colour of the 

 plumage was yet rnanifeft on the upper parts of the body. 



The egg figured by Sepp is certainly not that of the CuckoWy 

 being in fhape fimilar to that of a Hawk t it is very like the Jack- 

 daw's in fize and fhape, of a greenifli white, fpeckled with brown ; 

 whereas the true Ciukow's egg is not much bigger than that of a 



~ * Mr. Green, oi Lambeth,. f Phalcene Rubi, — Liti. 



a He^e: 



