114 CUCKOO. 



These birds keep in pairs all the year ; seldom congregate but to re- 

 gale on some carcase, or in winter to roost ; will frequently hide their 

 food till hunger is more pressing. The nest is generally placed in the 

 forked branch of a tree ; is composed of sticks plastered with earth, on 

 which are laid various soft materials, such as wool and hair. 



* M. Montbeillard, I think, must be mistaken in the nest he describes 

 as that of the Carrion Crow, which was found, he tells us, in an oak 

 eight feet high, in a wood planted on a little hill where were other 

 oaks larger, and formed on the outside with small branches and thorns 

 rudely interwoven, plastered with earth and horse-dung, and the inside 

 carefully " lined with fibrous roots." 1 At least all the Crows' nests 

 which I have examined, have been lined with a bedding of wool, the 

 hair of rabbits, and other soft materials of a similar kind.* 2 



The eggs are four or five in number, of a greenish colour, spotted 

 with dusky and ash-colour, their weight about five drams. * Colonel 

 Montagu observed two crows by the sea-shore, busy in removing small 

 fish beyond the flux of the flowing tide, and depositing them just above 

 high-water mark, under the broken rocks, after having satisfied the 

 calls of hunger. This species, like the magpie, is extremely garrulous 

 at the sight of a fox, or other small quadrupeds, and attacks and makes 

 prey of a half-grown hare. In a summer evening ramble, Colonel 

 Montagu saw one of these birds make repeated pounces at some animal 

 in a field where the grass was nearly a foot high, which appeared to 

 raise itself on its hind legs and defend itself stoutly ; upon a nearer 

 approach he discovered it to be a young hare.* 



CUCKOO. — (Cuculus canorus, Linnaeus.) 



* Cuculus canorus, Linn. Sysl. 1. p. 168. 1. — Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 409. sp. 1. — Rati, 



Syn. p. 23.— Will. p. 6. t. 10. 27.— Briss. 4. p. 105. I.— Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. p. 

 207. 1. — Cuculus hepaticus, Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. p. 215. sp. 25. — Le Coucougris, 

 Buff. Ois. 6. p. 305— lb. pi. Enl. 811.— Le Vaill. Ois. d'Afric. 5. pi. 202. and 



200 Temm. Man. d'Orn. 1. p. 382 — Asch-Grauer oder gemeine Kukuk, 



Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 2. p. 1120. — Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 110. — 

 Frisch, Vog. t. 40. — Cuculus canorus rufus, GmeL Syst. 1. p. 409. sp. 1. var. B. 

 — Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. p. 208. var. B.— Common Cuckoo, Br. Zool. 1. No. 82. 

 pi. 36.— Arct. Zool. 2. p. 266, A.—Lewins Br. Birds, t. 42.— Haye's Br. Birds, 



t. 17. 18 Lath. Syn. 2. p. 509. 1.— Ib. Supp. p. 98.— Mont. Orn. Diet.— Ib. 



Supp.— Bewick's Br. Birds, p. 108 Shaw's Zool. 9. p. 68.— pi. 37. and 



pi. 45. fig. 1. 



Provincial. — Gowk.* 

 The common Cuckoo is the only British species : its weight is about 

 four ounces and a half ; length fourteen inches. The bill is black, 

 yellowish at the base of the under mandible ; inside of the mouth red ; 

 irides yellow ; the head and whole upper part of the bird dark ash- 



Oiseaux, Art. La Corbine. 



2 Architecture of Birds, p. 216. 



