MR. J. II. C.URNEY ON THE ECONOMY OF THE CUCKOO. 305 
V. 
TIIE ECONOMY OF THE CUCKOO 
( CUCUL US GA NO R US ). 
By J. H. Gurney, F.Z.S. 
Read 26th October, 180 7. 
Linn : S.N., 1766. 
Newton, Yarrell's B.B. 1th ed. vol. ii. p. 387. 
„ Nature, Nov. 18th, 1869. 
„ Dictionary, vol. i. p. 118 et seq. 
Saunders’ Manual, p. 277, and 2nd ed. p. 287. 
Bidwell, Bull: B.O.C. vol. xxxiv. 
„ Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc. vol. iii. p. 526. 
Zoologist, 1894, Southwell and others. 
„ 1895, pp. 237, 257, 321. 
AY alter, J. F., Orn. 1889, p. 33. 
„ M B. Deutsch. v. Sohutze, 1890, p. 468. 
Rey Dr. E., 1892 (his conclusions given, ‘ Ibis,’ 1896, p. 395). 
„ „ Ornith. Monber, vol. iii. 
Capek. Orn. Jahrb. vol. vii. 
See the titles of other treatises on the Cuckoo in B.M. Catalogue, 
vol. xix. p. 245, and in Smith’s ‘ Birds of Wiltshire,’ but the 
above are specially important. 
There are several points — such as the stoutly denied eating of other 
birds’ eggs — not by any means thrashed out in the economy of the 
Common Cuckoo ( Cucultis canorus, L.). Taking the references 
given above as my text, I should like to say something about the 
familiar British Cuckoo, the theme of poets since Chaucer, if it is 
not trespassing on your forbearance to introduce what, at first 
sight, may seem to every one a well-worn theme. Well worn in 
the sense of being much written, about, but incomplete, and so it is 
likely to remain, because the law forbids Cuckoos to be killed in 
the Spring, and properly, yet Cuckoos are guilty of destroying many 
valuable insect eaters. 
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