432 On the Natural History of 
slit, and all we know of these birds sanctions the idea that they are 
not parasitic. The shortness of the feet, in the typical cuckoos, is 
another important distinction, and leads to the belief that these 
members are much less used than those of the Coccyzince, whose ha- 
bits we have already mentioned when alluding to the cuckoos of 
South America, all of which are excluded from the group now un- 
der consideration. The English cuckoo, no doubt, searches for its 
food among foliage, but its nature is so shy, that we never have been 
fortunate enough to witness its mode of feeding. Montagu, how- 
ever, one of the best authorities we can cite, says, that its principal 
food consists of caterpillars,* so that it not only possesses the gene- 
ral cast of colours, and much of the structure of its prototypes, the 
Ceblepyrince, but actually feeds on the same description of insects.t 
In both groups, the predominant colours are grey, transversely banded 
beneath ; both have pointed wings, thick set and stiff tail-covers, 
very short feet, broad bills, and smooth gapes. Their skins, also, 
are unusually thin. We thus perceive, that all the peculiarities of 
the typical cuckoos are intimately connected with what we know 
of their economy, and are in harmony with the analogical relations 
they bear to their types in other families. The shortness of their 
feet, indeed, might appear at first to militate against the theory of 
their representing the grallatorial birds, seeing that these latter are 
proverbial for a structure totally opposite, having, in fact, the long- 
est legs of any birds in existence ; but this objection would be 
founded on very partial reasoning. It is well known that the Te- 
nuiro&tres represent the Grallatores ; now the cuckoos represent 
both ; but this double representation would not be apparent, if all 
the analogies of their structure were drawn from only one of these 
groups. Nature, therefore, has combined them, and in a most beau- 
tiful manner. The Tenuirostres have the shortest feet of all the 
incessorial tribes, and the cuckoos have the shortest feet of all the 
Scansores. On the other hand, their analogy to the Grallatores is 
preserved by their remarkably long tail-covers, a structure which 
assimilates them as much to the waders, as their short feet does to 
the humming-birds. The nature of the food, again, of all three 
groups, evinces another bond of union. They all live upon the very 
softest animal substances. Marine worms are the caterpillars of the 
* Ornithological Dictionary. Original edition. 
f In an open and muirland district where the cuckoo is very common, we have 
always found, during May arid June, that the stomachs were filled with the re- 
mains of caterpillars which fed on the various plants frequent in such localities. 
Among them those of the Lasiocampce formed a great proportion, and buiry spe- 
cies seem to be preferred.-; EDIT. 
