432 On the Natural History of 



slit, and all we know of these birds sanctions the idea that they are 

 not parasitic. The shortness of the feet, in the typical cuckoos, is 

 another important distinction, and leads to the belief that these 

 members are much less used than those of the Coccyzince, whose ha- 

 bits we have already mentioned when alluding to the cuckoos of 

 South America, all of which are excluded from the group now un- 

 der consideration. The English cuckoo, no doubt, searches for its 

 food among foliage, but its nature is so shy, that we never have been 

 fortunate enough to witness its mode of feeding. Montagu, how- 

 ever, one of the best authorities we can cite, says, that its principal 

 food consists of caterpillars,* so that it not only possesses the gene- 

 ral cast of colours, and much of the structure of its prototypes, the 

 Ceblepyrinoe, but actually feeds on the same description of insects.f 

 In both groups, the predominant colours are grey, transversely banded 

 beneath ; both have pointed wings, thick set and stiff tail-covers, 

 very short feet, broad bills, and smooth gapes. Their skins, also, 

 are unusually thin. We thus perceive, that all the peculiarities of 

 the typical cuckoos are intimately connected with what we know 

 of their economy, and are in harmony with the analogical relations 

 they bear to their types in other families. The shortness of their 

 feet, indeed, might appear at first to militate against the theory of 

 their representing the grallatorial birds, seeing that these latter are 

 proverbial for a structure totally opposite, having, in fact, the long- 

 est legs of any birds in existence ; but this objection would be 

 founded on very partial reasoning. It is well known that the Te- 

 nuirostres represent the Grallatores ; now the cuckoos represent 

 both ; but this double representation would not be apparent, if all 

 the analogies of their structure were drawn from only one of these 

 groups. Nature, therefore, has combined them, and in a most beau- 

 tiful manner. The Tenuirostres have the shortest feet of all the 

 incessorial tribes, and the cuckoos have the shortest feet of all the 

 Scansores. On the other hand, their analogy to the Grallatores is 

 preserved by their remarkably long tail-covers, a structure which 

 assimilates them as much to the waders, as their short feet does to 

 the humming-birds. The nature of the food, again, of all three 

 groups, evinces another bond of union. They all live upon the very 

 softest animal substances. Marine worms are the caterpillars of the 



* Ornithological Dictionary. Original edition. 



f In an open and muirland district where the cuckoo is very common, we have 

 always found, during May and June, that the stomachs were filled with the re- 

 mains of caterpillars which fed on the various plants frequent in such localities. 

 Among them those of the Lasiocavipce formed a great proportion, and hairy spe- 

 cies seem to be preferred — Edit. 



