138 The cuckoo 



breed in spring, a fact in its history as little known as the migration 

 of the Cuckoo. It bears a certain resemblance to the Cuckoo, parti- 

 cularly in its barred plumage, certainly a greater one than exists 

 between a caterpillar and a butterfly, so that there were some grounds 

 for the belief in a metamorphosis, strengthened not a little by the 

 fact that the habits of the bird were peculiar in other respects. 

 Even so late as the time of our own countrymen, Willughby and 

 Ray (1676), it was a matter of doubt whether the Cuckoo lay torpid 

 in a hollow tree, or migrated during winter. These authors, though 

 they do not admit their belief of a story told by Aldrovandus of a 

 certain Swiss peasant having heard the note of a Cuckoo proceed 

 from a log of wood which he had thrown into a furnace, thought 

 it highly probable that the Cuckoo did become torpid during winter, 

 and were acquainted with instances of persons who had heard its 

 note during unusually mild winter weather. A Cuckoo which had 

 probably been hatched off too late to go away with the rest remained 

 about the tennis ground of a relative of the present editor 

 until the middle of November, getting very tame. Then, unfortun- 

 ately, a cat got it. The assertion again of the older naturalists, 

 that the Cuckoo is the object of hatred among birds generally, seems 

 credible, though I should be inclined to consider its habit of laying 

 its eggs in the nests of other birds as the cause rather than the con- 

 sequence of its unpopularity. The contrary, however, is the fact, 

 numerous anecdotes of the Cuckoo showing that it is regarded by 

 many other birds with a respect which amounts to infatuation, 

 rather than with apprehension. The statement that it lays but 

 one egg is erroneous, so also is the assertion of WiUughby that it 

 invariably destroys the eggs found in a nest previously to depositing 

 its own. Pliny's assertion that the young bird devours its foster 

 brothers and sisters is nearer the truth, but his account of its crown- 

 ing act of impiety in swallowing its nurse, is, I need not say, 

 altogether unfounded in fact. Having disposed of these errors, 

 some of which are entertained by the credulous or ill-informed at 

 the present day, I wiU proceed to sketch in outline the biography 

 of this singular bird, as the facts are now pretty generally admitted. 

 The Cuckoo arrives in this country about the middle of April ; 

 the time of its coming to different countries is adapted to the time of 

 the foster-parents' breeding. During the whole of its stay it leads a 

 wandering life, building no nest, and attaching itself to no particular 

 locality. It shows no hostility towards birds of another kind, and 

 little affection for those of its own. If two males meet in the course 

 of their wandering they frequently fight with intense animosity. I 

 was once witness of an encounter between two birds who chanced 

 to meet in mid-air. Without alighting they attacked each other 

 with fury, pecking at each other and changing places just as one 

 sees two barn-door cocks fight for the supremacy of the dunghill. 

 Feathers flew in profusion, and in their passion the angry birds heeded 



