$io C U C K O W. 



others marked with white fpots on each fide their fhafts : the legs- 

 are fhort, and yellow. 

 Female. The female differs fomewhat : the neck, both before and behind, 



is of a brownifh red : the tail barred with this laft colour, and 

 black ; and fpotted on each fide the ffiaft with white. 

 Young. The young birds are brown, mixed with ferruginous and black; 



and in that ftate have been defcribed, by fome authors, as old ones. 

 To this account, taken from the Britifo Zoology, I cannot add 

 any thing material. 

 Manners. It is on all hands allowed, that the Cuckow does riot hatch its 



own eggs : the reafon of this does not appear manifeft ; podibly 

 it may be occafioned by the great fize and length of the Jlomach, 

 which protrudes far beyond xhe-fternum-, that part being fo very 

 lhort, as not to be fufficient to take off the preffure in incubation, 

 whereby digeftion may be impeded. — This circumftance has not 

 failed to ftrike me on diffecYion. 



This bird is fuppofed moft frequently to lay only one, or atmoft 

 not more than two eggs ; it is generally believed only one, but 

 the poffibility of laying two muft appear manifeft, from two eggs 

 having been found, nearly ready for laying, in the ovary of a female 

 of one of thefe; and an inftance has not been wanting, where two 

 eggs have been, laid in one neft*. The egg is. bigger than that 

 of a Nightingale, and longer in proportion : of a greyifh white, 

 marked with fome fpots of dull, and others of a darker violet 

 brown. A Water- wagtail, Yellow-hammer, or Hedge-fparrow, is 

 generally the nurfe of the young Cuckow -]- : but Buffon enume- 

 rates twenty forts of nefts, at lead *, in which they have depofited 

 their eggs. It may be fuppofed, that the female Cuckow lays 



* Hift. dcs oif. vi, p. 324. f Br. Zool. vol. i. p. 234* 



her 



