86 ON THE MENTAL QUALITIES AND 



The three species of cuckows which inhabit North Ame- 

 rica, far from imitating the conduct of their brethren in the 

 Old World, are known each to build its own nest, hatch 

 its own eggs, and rear its own young; while, in conjugal 

 and parental affection, they are said by Wilson to appear 

 nowise behind any of their neighbours of the grove. Nay, 

 so far is this from being the case, that there is an instance 

 mentioned by Audubon, in his Ornithological Biography, 

 of eleven young cuckows having been hatched and reared 

 in one season by a single pair of old birds. Thus we have 

 every reason to believe, that the American cuckows^ mani- 

 fest at least as much affection for their young as most other 

 birds do ; and by the phrenological doctrine, they ought to 

 have the organ of Philoprogenitiveness, if not of large size, 

 yet fully developed. But such is not the case ; for on com- 

 paring the skulls of two of the cuckows above mentioned, 

 the Coccyzus Americanus, or yellow- billed cuckow, and the 

 C. erythrophthalmus, or black-billed cuckow, both of which 

 are in our possession, with the European cuckow ( Cuculus 

 canorus J, the deficiency at the situation of Philoprogeni- 

 tiveness is seen to be common to all three, and if possible, 

 is most conspicuous in the C. Americanus, which rears its 

 own young. 



It may be objected to the above, that the three birds 

 compared do not belong to the same genus, to which I 

 would reply as follows: Although by modern ornitholo- 

 gists, with whom a few trifling differences in the integu- 

 ments are sufficient to characterize genera, the birds in 

 question are divided, yet their generic distinctions are 

 founded merely on a slight difference in the form of the 

 bill, and the shape of the nostrils, while the general con- 



