9 8 



O^nClTHOLOgi. Book II. 



The Feet, 

 Toes, and 

 Claws. 



T rs Food. 

 Its manner 

 of breeding, 



What be- 

 comes of the 

 Cuekovv in 

 Winter. 



fides the (haft with white marks, fomewhat refembling the figure of a heart, about 

 an inch diftant from each other, in a decent and lovely order, pleafant to behold. But 

 the edges of the inner fides of all but the two middlemoft, and the tops of all were 

 adorned with white (pots. 



The Feet and Claws are yellow. It hath two back-toes 5 of which the interiour is 

 the leaft of all the Toes, and next to that the interiour of the fore-toes. The Claws 

 are fomething hollowed on the infide, efpecially the greateft : The two fore-toes are 

 connected from the divarication to the firft joynt. 



In the (tomach differed we found Caterpillars and other Inle&s. The Hedge-Spar- 

 row [ Cnrmca ] is the Cmkprps Nurfe, but not the Hedge-Sparrow only, ( \iCurruca be 

 fo rightly rendred) but sACo Ring- Doves, Larks, Finches. I my felf with many others 

 have feen a Wagtail feeding a young Cnckpw. The Cvckpw her felf builds no Neft -, 

 but having found the Neft of fome little bird, (he either devours or deftroys the 

 Eggs (he there finds, and in the room thereof lays one of her own, and fo forfakes it. 

 The filly bird returning, fits on this Egg. hatches it, and with a great deal of care and 

 toil broods, feeds, and cheriflies the young Cnckpw for her own, until it be grown up 

 and able to fly and (hift for it felf. Which thing feems fo ftrange, monftrous, and 

 abfurd, that for my part I cannot fufficiently wonder there fhould be fuch an example 

 in nature ; nor could I have ever been induced to believe that fuch a thing had been 

 done by Natures inftinft, had I not with my own eyes feen it. For Nature in other- 

 things is wont conftantly to obferveone and the fame Law and Order agreeable to the 

 higheft reafon and prudence: Which in this cafe is, that the Dams make Neds for 

 themfelves, if need be, fit upon their own Eggs, and bring up their Young after they 

 are hatcht. 



What becomes of the Cuckpve in the Winter-time, whether hiding her felf in hol- 

 low Trees, or other holes and Caverns, (he lies torpid, and at the return of the Spring 

 revives again j or rather at the approach of Winter, being impatient of cold, (hifts 

 place and departs into hot Countrys, is not as yet to me certainly known. Aldrovan- 

 dus writes, that it is by long obfervation found, that (he doth in the Winter enter 

 into the hollows of trees, or the Caverns of Rocks and the earth, and there lie hid 

 all that feafon. Some ( faith he ) tell a (lory of a certain Country-man of Zurich in 

 Switzerland, who having laid a Log on the fire in Winter, heard a Cnckpw cry in it. 

 For being of a very tender nature, and impatient of cold (as Arifiotle witnelTeth) no 

 wonder, if to avoid the Winter-cold, it hide it felf in holes, elpecially feeing at that 

 time it moults its feathers. We alfo have heard of the like (lories in England,nnd have 

 known fome who have affirmed themfelves in the middle of Winter, in a more than 

 ufually mild and warm feafon, to have heard the voice of the Cnck^vp. But feeing it is 

 molt certain, that many forts of Birds do at certain Seafons of the year (hift places, 

 and depart into other Countrys, as for example Quails, Woodcocks, Fieldfares^ 

 Storks, 8cc. Why may not Cuckorvs alio do the fame ? For my part I never yet met with 

 any credible perfon that dared affirm, that himfelf bad found or feen a Cnckgw in 

 Winter-time taken out of a hollow tree, or any other lurking-place. 



Since the writing of this, reading jfa. Faber his Expofitions of the Pictures of fome 

 Mexican Animals of Nardi Antonio Kecchi, I find alleged the teftimony of a credible 

 perfon and an eye-witnefs, one Theophilvs Molitor, a Friend ofFabers, for this lurking 

 of Cuckgws in hollow trees. Molitor affirmed this to have hapnedat his Fathers houfe. 

 His Grandfathers Servants having flocked up in a certain Meadow fome old, dry, 

 rotten Willows, and brought them home, andcaft the heads of two of them into the 

 Furnace to heat the Stove, heard as they were in the Stove a Cnckgro finging three 

 times. Wondring at this cry of the Cuckgw'm the Winter-time, out they go, and 

 drawing the heads of the Willows out of the Furnace, in the one of them they obfer- 

 ved fomething move 5 wherefore taking an Axe they opened thehole,and thrufting in 

 their hands, firft they pluckt out nothing but meer feathers : Afterward they got hold 

 of a living Animal, that was the very Cuckgm, and drew it out. It was indeed brisk 

 and lively, but wholly naked and bare of feathers, and without any Winter-provifion 

 of food, which Cfickpiv the Boys kept two whole years in the Stove. 



* Aldrovandus hkfirfifort ofCuckfrv* 



This differs in many refpe&s from the precedent, as firft, in that the tranfverle lines 

 on the Bread are not continued, but interrupted. Secondly, In that the covert-fea- 

 thers of the Neck, Back, and Wings arc alrooft ?U parti-coloured of black and 



ferrugineous. 



