CUCKOO. 



117 



formed for climbing- ; but it was evident that this bird had no such 

 power, although the disposition of the toes gave it a very powerful 

 grasp.* 



It has long been a received opinion that the Cuckoo deposited its 

 egg in the nest of some other bird ; that it never sat on its own egg-, 

 but left it to be incubated by the bird in whose nest it was deposited ; 

 that it seldom laid more than one egg", because that number is most 

 commonly found in a nest ; and that as no other young but that of the 

 Cuckoo is found in a nest, it was imagined that the old Cuckoo either 

 destroyed the eggs or young of the bird whose nest it dropped its own 

 egg into. 



In this state had the natural history of the Cuckoo remained, till the 

 ingenious Dr. Jenner illustrated it in a letter to Mr. John Hunter, 

 published in the Philosophical Transactions. To the light this gentle- 

 man has thrown on the subject, every naturalist must feel himself 

 obliged. But knowledge, arriving by slow degrees, and the fallibility 

 of human power being certain, will, we hope, plead an excuse for fur- 

 ther attempting to elucidate the history of that singular bird. The 

 opinion of different persons coinciding cannot fail to strengthen an 

 assertion ; and we are happy to declare, from personal experience, that 

 we agree with that gentleman in respect to the incubation and nutrition 

 of the Cuckoo, and the phenomenon of the infant bird throwing the 

 eggs or young of the foster parent out of the nest ; and only differ 

 somewhat in respect to the parturition of that and other birds. It 

 must be understood we do not mean to contradict that author absolutely 

 in any point, but only to offer such ideas to the friends of science as 

 may further stimulate to a more minute investigation. Many years 

 ago a Cuckoo's egg was brought to me, taken out of a reed sparrow's 

 nest ; I immediately put it into the nest of a swallow, in an out-build- 

 ing, who had just begun to sit. On visiting it, about the time I ex- 

 pected the exclusion of the young, I was surprised to find the young- 

 Cuckoo sole possessor of the nest. This and similar instances convinced 

 me that the eggs of the foster parent could not be destroyed by the old 

 Cuckoo. It was difficult to suggest what became of the bird's eggs in 

 whose nest the Cuckoo chose to deposit hers. It was unnatural to 

 suppose the bird would throw out or destroy its own in preference to 

 that of the intruder ; and the circumstance of young Cuckoos never 

 being found with companions in the nest, could not admit of a supposi- 

 tion that they were destroyed by accident. In this very unenlightened 

 state, then, was the history of this bird, till Dr. Jenner proved, by a 

 variety of experiments, exhibited under his own inspection, the extra- 

 ordinary circumstance of the young Cuckoo's turning out its nestling 



