35° 



AVES— SUB-ORDER CUCULI. 



longns hallueis tendon, and not by the flexor perforans digitonim. The 

 palate is " bridged " or desmognathous. In the cuckoos the oil-gland is 

 nude, and the feet thoroughly zygodactyle, with two toes directed forwards 

 and two backwards, whereas in the Musophagidce or touracoes the fourth toe 

 is not so completely turned backwards as in the Ouculidte, and the foot is 

 therefore termed semi-zygodactyle. 



The Gucididie are divided by Captain Shelley into six sub-families, of which 

 the first contains the true cuckoos or Cuculirue. In these birds the tail is 

 composed of ten feathers, the upper tail-coverts are not unduly prolonged, 

 the wing is long and pointed, showing that most of the species are migrants, 

 therein differing from the wing in the bush-cuckoos, which has a rounded 

 and concave wing, indicating that they are not birds of strong flight. 



In this sub-family are found the crested cuckoos (Coccystes), the typical 

 cuckoos {Gumdus), the hawk-cuckoos (Uierococcyx), the golden cuckoos 

 (Ghrysoeoccyx), the American cuckoos {Goccyzus), the koels {EudyiMmis), the 

 channel-bills {Scythrops), and several other genera. In the genus Coccystes 

 we find the first instance of the curious parasitic nature of the cuckoos, but 

 in the case of the great spotted cuckoo (Goccystes glandnrius) there is not the 

 same remarkable variation in the colour of the egg that we find in the common 

 cuckoo {Giicidus cdnoms). On tlie contrary, the egg of 0. glaiidarms is very 

 crow-like, and it is deposited in the nests of crows and magpies. The Indian 

 crested cuckoo (C. jacohin-us) lays blue eggs, and places them in the nests of 

 birds which also lay blue eggs, such as babbling-thrushes, etc. 



Ten species of true cuckoo are known, and the type of the genus Cumha 

 is our common cuckoo (Gticidus ccliiorus). The genus is distributed over 

 the whole of the Old World, excepting in the Pacific 

 Islands. 



In a concise work like the present there is not space to 

 give in detail the habits of a bird like the cuckoo, whose 

 life-history would require a volume to itself. It will he, 

 however, known to most of my readers that the female cuckoo makes no nest 

 of its own, but deposits its egg in the nest of some other bird, and leaves to 

 the latter the task of hatching the eggs and bringing up the young cuckoo. 

 The latter, while still blind and naked, ejects the other little occupants of the 

 nest, and receives thereafter the undivided attention of the foster-parents. 

 The latter are of many kinds, flycatchers, war- 

 blers, finches, etc.-, preference, however, being 

 given to the warblers and pipits and other 

 insectivorous birds. In the Western Palsearctic 

 region alone the egg of G. canonis has been 

 found in nests of 120 different species, and an- 

 other curious fact in connection with the eco- 

 nomy of the species is that the cuckoo's egg 

 is remarkably small for the size of the bird, 

 and is, in many cases, almost an exact 

 copy of the egg of the foster-parent. Each 

 female cuckoo is believed to lay the same type 

 of egg during its life, so that a bird which lays 

 blue eggs, to be inserted in the nest of a blue- 

 egged species like the redstart or pied flycatcher, 

 always lays blue eggs. The cuckoo ranges all 

 over Europe and Northern Asia, and winters in 

 Africa, India, and Australia. 



The True 



Cuckoos. — 



Genus Guculus. 



Fig. 83.— The Commox Cuokoo 

 (ChiaUua canorus). 



