THE CUCKOO. 
361 
more than a year at Cranmore, near Belfast, the residence of that 
well-known naturalist, John Templeton, Esq. But it will suffice 
to give the particulars respecting another, kept for a longer period, 
at the same place, and of which the following account, greatly 
exceeding in interest any I have read, appears in the MS. journal 
of Mr. Templeton : — 
“ January 10th, 1822. — Last night the cuckoo which E 
got on the 26th of July, 1820, died in consequence of C having 
hurt it with her foot on Tuesday last [8th]. Thus ended the days 
of this innocent little bird, whose engaging manners were the 
delight of the whole family and the admiration of strangers. It 
was fed generally on hard boiled eggs, and occasionally with 
caterpillars : it would sometimes eat forty or fifty at a time of 
those of the Papilio brassier ; it, however, showed a decided 
preference for rough ones, as those of the Papilio urticce. A 
seeming treat was a little mouse, about one quarter grown, which 
it would hold in its bill and beat against the ground, or anything 
hard, until the animal became soft, when it exhibited great powers 
of extending its throat and swallowing. What, however, was 
most extraordinary, it was never known to take a drink ; though 
when presented with a drop of water at the end of a finger or 
straw, it would sip it, and seemed to delight, when seated on its 
mistress's or other person's hand, to put its bill to their mouths 
and sip saliva. It delighted very much in heat, and sitting in the 
sunshine ; and as its feathers were so much broken by its striking 
confinement, it uttered, when in want of food, a note so closely resembling that of the 
titlark, that it would have been almost impossible to distinguish between them. By 
degrees, however, its voice became more harsh, and latterly its only call has been a dis- 
cordant one, uttered in the evening-, and but once daily. This is very like the bark 
of a dog, repeated four or five times in quick succession. Whether all young cuckoos 
have, in the first instance, the same note, or whether they acquire, for a time, that of 
the foster parents, (whatever it may happen to be,) I have been unable to ascertain ; 
but the present case seems to support the latter supposition. For some weeks the 
cuckoo’s food (consisting of the yelk of hard boiled eggs, worms, or chopped flesh- 
meat,) was placed in its beak, but it has learned to feed out of a cup placed in the 
cage. The worms are invariably passed several times through its bill in the peculiar 
manner described by Montagu previous to being swallowed. It prefers caterpillars 
in the season to any other species of food, and seldom swallows anything without 
bruising it for some time in its beak. No fluid of any kind has been given to this 
bird. The irides are hazel, not blue, as stated by Bewick in reference to the young 
of this species.” A few hours after the preceding was written, the subject of it was 
found dead in its cage. 
