MR. J. H. GURNEY ON THE ECONOMY OF THE CUCKOO. 379 
Feeding its own Young. 
Having now sufficiently discussed eggs, nestlings, and fosterers, 
there are still a few points about the Cuckoo when it has reached 
maturity, on which our best authors have dwelt but little, — such 
are the Cuckoo’s anatomy, and its hepatic plumage, and apocryphal 
pouch, and age. Were a full history of the Cuckoo required 
there would be many other things, its food, migrations, and 
song to consider, about which we need not trouble now, to say 
nothing of the legends which amount to a mythology of their own. 
There is still one matter in particular of great significance, the 
feeding of its own young, which seems really to take place. At 
the head of this paper are given twelve very important references 
to histories of the Cuckoo, where nearly all that was known 
about it up to a few years ago can be learnt, and in particular 
the feeding of its own young has been asserted and rebutted 
with no little warmth. The statement of Mr. J. McIntosh that 
ho had distinctly watched an old Cuckoo feeding a young one with 
caterpillars of Abraxas grossulariata (‘ Morris’ Naturalist,’ 1851, 
p. 1 1 ), received with incredulity, because he had made mistakes in 
Natural History elsewhere, was nevertheless curiously confirmatory 
of what had been previously reported by a naturalist of the British 
Museum, J. E. Gray (P.Z.S., 1836, p. 104). Both these stories 
are now further attested by the narrative of Herr A. Muller, of what 
he personally saw in the German forest of Hohenschied, a narrative 
which, in this particular, bears the stamp of minute and correct 
observation (‘Ibis,’ 1889, p. 219, translation). It therefore appears 
that this departure from the Cuckoo’s ordinary habits does take 
place under very rare circumstances, and we may expect that further 
verification of it will be obtained in time, special attention being 
now drawn to the subject by Herr Muller. 
Age. 
Next as regards the age of the bird. Mr. T. Webber tells a 
singular story of a Cuckoo at Falmouth, a female, brought up 
by hand, which for three summers returned to the house where 
it was reared, and allowed itself to be fed and caressed, but 
VOL. VI. 
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