OBSERVATIONS ON .THE CUCKOO. 
——_<.—___ 
Durine a period of more than two thousand years, 
from the time of Aristotle (the father of Natural His- 
tory) to the year 1788, when the excellent observations 
of Dr. Jenner, so justly celebrated for the introduction 
of vaccination, were published in the ‘ Transactions of 
the Royal Society’ *, the history of the Cuckoo, if 
it deserved the appellation, consisted of a tissue of 
extravagant fables, very sparingly interspersed with 
facts. It will not be necessary to particularize the 
many fanciful conjectures transmitted to us by the 
ancients respecting this bird, as they have been 
repeatedly noticed by authors of eminence, and are 
sufficiently well known to the classical ornithologist. 
It may be observed, however, that so profound has 
been the veneration of succeeding ages for the opi- 
nions of antiquity, and so unbounded the confidence 
in the accuracy of those collected by Aristotle on this 
particular subject, that, notwithstanding the great 
absurdity of some of them, they long continued to 
* Vol, Ixxviii. pt. 2. 
