The Cuckoo, 47 



Like^ many grouncl-freqneiitint:!: birds, the Il'iopoe is fond of dusting its 

 feathers in sandy roads, probably to get rid of tlie small fleas wliicli persecute 

 most of those whose nests are formed in holes. 



As a cage-bird the Hoopoe is tolerably well-known, and usually pleases its 

 owner by its tameness : the best food for it consists largely of soaked ants' 

 cocoons, supplemented by mealworms, spiders, insects of all kinds and earthworms. 

 Unfortunately this birds' habit of tapping on tlie earth tends to split its bill, thus 

 rendering it unable to pick up its food and so producing death through starvation ; 

 an aviary with beds of earth and a thick layer of sand over the remainder of the 

 floor would, therefore, be most suitable for this species. 



FAMILY CUCULID.€. 



RESPECTING the natural position of the Cuckoos there has been considerable 

 diversity of opinion — Wallace considered that the\- approached the Toucans ; 

 Jerdon that they were related on the one hand to the Toucans, on the other to 

 the Woodpeckers * ; Forbes believed them to be allied to the Pheasants, Bustards, 

 etc. ; Seebohm that they were nearest to the jMusophagidcr, or Plantain-eaters ; 

 whilst Huxley, Sclater, and Gadow placed them with the other Picarian families. 



The Cuckoos are a ver}^ large and remarkable group of birds, consisting of 

 not far short of two hundred species, many of them of extraordinary- beaut}-. Most 

 of them are insectivorous, though a few of them are frugivorous, but with the 

 latter we need not concern ourselves. In like manner some Cuckoos are parasitic 

 whilst others build their own nests and rear successive generations of 3-oung, 

 sometimes even overlapping, so that a freshly laid ^^g has been found in the 

 same nest with a full-fledged 3^oung one. 



Although the bill is only of moderate size, the gape is ver}- wide: the toes 

 are unequal, the outer toe being reversible : the tail consists of from ten to twelve 

 feathers, and is both broad and long. 



The Cuculinas to which our common Cuckoo belongs, represent a Subfamily 

 of usually more or less Hawk-like birds with parasitic habits, placing their eggs 



* Jerdon, however, states that " in their general anatomy they resemble the Caprimulgid/r"—K.Q,.^. 



