CLASS II. AVES: 
ORDER 3. SCANSORES. 
207 
dirty white, red spotted ; the flesh is tainted with a strong odor of castoreum, and is therefore 
unfit for food. 
THE COLIIDiE OR COLIES. 
These birds are aUicd to the Mnsophaffidce ; their feathers are soft and silky, and their color 
greenish-gray, whence they are called Mouse-Birds ; they belong to both Africa and Asia; they 
are gregarious, live upon fruits and buds, and are the scourge of gardens. They walk badly, but 
climb like parrots ; they sleep suspended from the branches of trees, with their heads downward ; 
the eggs are five to six ; the flesh is esteemed for the table. 
ORDER 3. SCANSORES. 
The principal character by which these birds are distinguished from the Passeres, consists in 
the peculiar arrangement of the toes, of which two are always directed forward and two back- 
ward. This enables them to climb trees with great facility, some of them, as the Parrots, by 
grasping the smaller branches, and using the feet in the manner of hands, while others, such as 
the Woodpeckers and their allies, may rather be considered to run upon the surface of the 
trunks and larger branches in every direction. Some live principally upon fruits and seeds, others 
upon insects. In most cases, the wings are rather short, and the flight by no means vigorous. 
The order includes four families — the Cuckoos, the WoodjMckers, the Parrots, and the Toucans. 
THE CUCULIDJE OR CUCKOOS. 
The prominent genus of this family is CUCULUS : Cuculus, which includes the Common 
Cuckoo of Europe, C. canorus, fourteen inches long, of a gray tint, the breast barred with brown- 
ish-black; it is migratory, arriving in Europe in the spring, uttering very distinctly, and in a ten- 
der and plaintive tone, the notes cuck-oo, cuck-oo, very different from the flat notes of kou-kou be- 
longing to our cuckoo. It feeds principally on the large hairy caterpillars of the tiger-moths ; it 
also eats other insects, worms, &c. It builds no nest, but the female deposits her egg, stealthily, 
in the nest of some other bird — a titlark, thrush, wagtail, robin, sky-lark, or bunting, and it is 
hatched by the deceived and cheated proprietor with her own brood. The young cuckoo, when 
he is partly grown, crowds himself under his young foster-brothers and sisters, lifts them up, and 
tumbles them over the edge of the nest to the ground ; here they perish, while he gormandizes all 
the food the parents can bring. This is not an occasional or accidental proceeding on the part of 
the cuckoos; it is instinctive, systematic, and universal. What a strange departure from the. 
usual course of nature ; fraud, cruelty, and ingratitude in the very cradle of a whole race of birds ! 
The Great Spotted Cuckoo, C. glandariuSy is fifteen and a half inches long; it belongs to 
