THE CUCKOO. 47 
Like many ground-frequenting birds, the Hoopoe is fond of dusting its 
feathers in sandy roads, probably to get rid of the small fleas which 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 the 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 CUCULIDA. 
ESPECTING the natural position of the Cuckoos there has been considerable 
diversity of opinion—Wallace considered that they 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 A/usophagide, or Plantain-eaters ; 
whilst Huxley, Sclater, and Gadow placed them with the other Picarian families. 
The Cuckoos are a very large and remarkable group of birds, consisting of 
not far short of two hundred species, many of them of extraordinary beauty. 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 young, 
sometimes even overlapping, so that a freshly laid egg has been found in the 
same nest with a full-fledged young one. 
Although the bill is only of moderate size, the gape is very 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 Cuculine 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 Caprimulgida.’—A.G.B. 
