THE CUCKOO. 361 



more than a year at Cranmore, near Belfast, the residence of that 

 well-known naturalist, John Templeton, Esq. But it will suffice 

 to give the particulars respecting another, kept for a longer period, 

 at the same place, and of which the following account, greatly 

 exceeding in interest any I have read, appears in the MS. journal 

 of Mr. Templeton : — 



"January 10th, 1822. — Last night the cuckoo which E 



got on the 26th of July, 1820, died in consequence of C having 



hurt it with her foot on Tuesday last [8th] . Thus ended the days 

 of this innocent little bird, whose engaging manners were the 

 delight of the whole family and the admiration of strangers. It 

 was fed generally on hard boiled eggs, and occasionally with 

 caterpillars : it would sometimes eat forty or fifty at a time of 

 those of the Papilio brassica ; it, however, showed a decided 

 preference for rough ones, as those of the Papilio urticce. A 

 seeming treat was a little mouse, about one quarter grown, which 

 it would hold in its bill and beat against the ground, or anything 

 hard, until the animal became soft, when it exhibited great powers 

 of extending its throat and swallowing. What, however, was 

 most extraordinary, it was never known to take a drink ; though 

 when presented with a drop of water at the end of a finger or 

 straw, it would sip it, and seemed to delight, when seated on its 

 mistress's or other person's hand, to put its bill to their mouths 

 and sip saliva. It delighted very much in heat, and sitting in the 

 sunshine ; and as its feathers were so much broken by its striking 



confinement, it uttered, when in want of food, a note so closely resembling that of the 

 titlark, that it would have been almost impossible to distinguish between them. By 

 degrees, however, its voice became more harsh, and latterly its only call has been a dis- 

 cordant one, uttered in the evening, and but once daily. This is very like the bark 

 of a dog, repeated four or five times in quick succession. Whether all young cuckoos 

 have, in the first instance, the same note, or whether they acquire, for a time, that of 

 the foster parents, (whatever it may happen to be,) I have been unable to ascertain ; 

 but the present case seems to support the latter supposition. For some weeks the 

 cuckoo's food (consisting of the yelk of hard boiled eggs, worms, or chopped flesh- 

 meat,) was placed in its beak, but it has learned to feed out of a cup placed in the 

 cage. The worms are invariably passed several times through its bill in the peculiar 

 manner described by Montagu previous to being swallowed. It prefers caterpillars 

 in the season to any other species of food, and seldom swallows anything without 

 bruising it for some time in its beak. No fluid of any kind has been given to this 

 bird. The irides are hazel, not blue, as stated by Bewick in reference to the young 

 of this species." A few hours after the preceding was written, the subject of it was 

 found dead in its case. 



