114 
CUCKOO. 
These birds keep in pairs all the year ; seldom congreg'ate but to re- 
gale on some carcase, or in winter to roost ; will frequently hide their 
food till hunger is more pressing. The nest is generally placed in the 
forked branch of a tree ; is composed of sticks plastered with earth, on 
which are laid various soft materials, such as wool and hair. 
*M. Montbeillard, I think, must be mistaken in the nest he describes 
as that of the Carrion Crow, which was found, he tells us, in an oak 
eight feet high, in a wood planted on a little hill where were other 
oaks larger, and formed on the outside with small branches and thorns 
rudely interwoven, plastered with earth and horse-dung, and the inside 
carefully “ lined with fibrous roots.” * At least all the Crows’ nests 
which I have examined, have been lined with a bedding of wool, the 
hair of rabbits, and other soft materials of a similar kind.*^ 
The eggs are four or five in number, of a greenish colour, spotted 
with dusky and ash-colour, their weight about five drams. * Colonel 
Montagu observed two crows by the sea-shore, busy in removing small 
fish beyond the flux of the flowing tide, and depositing them just above 
high-water mark, under the broken rocks, after having satisfied the 
calls of hunger. This species, like the magpie, is extremely garrulous 
at the sight of a fox, or other small quadrupeds, and attacks and makes 
prey of a half-grown hare. In a summer evening ramble. Colonel 
Montagu saw one of these birds make repeated pounces at some animal 
in a field where the grass was nearly a foot high, which appeared to 
raise itself on its hind legs and defend itself stoutly ; upon a nearer 
approach he discovered it to be a young hare.* 
CUCKOO. — (^Cuculus canorus, LiNNiEus.) 
* Cuculus canorus, Linn. Sysl. 1. p. 168. 1. — Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 409. sp. 1. — Raii, 
Syn. p. 23.-— Will. p. 6. t. 10. 27, — Briss. 4. p. 105. 1. — Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. p. 
207. 1. — Cuculus hepaticus, Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. p. 215. sp. 25. — Le Coucou gris, 
Buf\ Ois. 6. p. 305. — Ib. pi. Enl. 811. — Le Vaill. Ois. d’Afric. 5. pi. 202. and 
200. — Temm. Man. d’Orn. 1. p. 382 — Asch-Grauer oder gemeine Kukuk, 
Bechst. Naturg. Dent. 2. p. 1120. — Meyer, Tasschenb. Dent. 1. p. 110. — 
Frisch, Vbg. t. 40 Cuculus canorus rufus, GmeL Syst. 1. p. 409. sp, 1. var. B. 
— Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. p. 208. var. B. — Common Cuckoo, Br. Zool. 1. No. 82. 
pi. 36. — Arct. Zool. 2. p. 266. A. — -Lewin’s Br. Birds, t. 42. — H aye's Br. Birds, 
t. 17. 18 Lath. Syn. 2. p. 509. 1. — Ib. Supp. p. 98. — Mont. Orn. Diet. — Ib. 
Supp. — Bewick's Br. Birds, p. 108 -Shaw’s Zool. 9. p. 68.- — Selby, pi. 37. and 
pi. 45. fig. 1. 
Provincial. — Gowk.* 
The common Cuckoo is the only British species : its weight is about 
four ounces and a half ; length fourteen inches. The bill is black, 
yellowish at the base of the under mandible ; inside of the mouth red ; 
irides yellow ; the head and whole upper part of the bird dark ash- 
* Oiseaux, Art. La Corbine. 
^ Architecture of Birds, p. 216. 
