THE CUCKOO. 143 



The Kite, too, slow moving, was seen midst the host. 

 Many Fulmars and Razou-Bills came from the 

 coast. 



may obtain its food unseen by climbing about on the branches of 

 trees where it is generally heard to sing ; it does not often alight 

 on the ground ; the elm is one of its favourites. 



The cuckoo is, it is said, found in Java, and some other of the 

 Asiatic isles, but it is never heard to sing there. There is, in the 

 Museum of the East India Company, a specimen marked Cuculus 

 Canorus, a native of Java; bnt I have great doubt, from the 

 smallness of its size and difference in colours, compared with 

 our cuckoo, whether it be the same species. 



Till lately, it was not known that any other bird laid its eggs 

 in the nest of other birds, besides the cuckoo ; it is now, however, 

 well ascertained, that an American bird, called in America 

 Cowpen or Cow-bunting, (see the Notes of the Second Part,)^ 

 lays its eggs in other birds' nests, and takes no care whatever of 

 its offspring. 



Upon the whole, the Natural History of this bird is most extra- 

 ordinary ; and I have, therefore, been somewhat minute concern- 

 ing it. Its notes, although monotonous, are mingled with some 

 of our most agreeable associations, with the vivifying Spring, 

 with May, and the season of flowers. 



The poems containing allusions to the cuckoo are innumera- 

 ble; Logan has given us a beautiful little Ode to the Cuckoo, 

 with which the reader will be much pleased. I cannot find 

 room for it here; the following is the first stanza of it: 



" Hail, beauteous stranger of the grove, 

 Thou messenger of spring! 

 Now Heaven repairs thy rural seat, 

 And woods thy welcome sing." 



The Indicator, or Honey Guide Cuckoo, is a rusty grey, 

 and is fond of honey ; it inhabits the interior of Africa ; its notes 



