CUCKOO. 
117 
formed for climbing’ ; but it was evident that this bird had no such 
power, although the disposition of the toes gave it a very powerful 
grasp.* 
It has long been a received opinion that the Cuckoo deposited its 
egg in the nest of some other bird ; that it never sat on its own egg, 
but left it to be incubated by the bird in whose nest it was deposited ; 
that it seldom laid more than one egg, because that number is most 
commonly found in a nest ; and that as no other young but that of the 
Cuckoo is found in a nest, it was imagined that the old Cuckoo either 
destroyed the eggs or young of the bird whose nest it dropped its own 
egg into. 
In this state had the natural history of the Cuckoo remained, till the 
ing'enious Dr. Jenner illustrated it in a letter to Mr. John Hunter, 
published in the Philosophical Transactions. To the light this gentle- 
man has thrown on the subject, every naturalist must feel himself 
obliged. But knowledge, arriving by slow degrees, and the fallibility 
of human power being certain, will, we hope, plead an excuse for fur- 
ther attempting to elucidate the history of that singular bird. The 
opinion of different persons coinciding cannot fail to strengthen an 
assertion ; and we are happy to declare, from personal experience, that 
we agree with that gentleman in respect to the incubation and nutrition 
of the Cuckoo, and the phenomenon of the infant bird throwing the 
eggs or young of the foster parent out of the nest ; and only differ 
somewhat in respect to the parturition of that and other birds. It 
must be understood we do not mean to contradict that author aljsolutely 
in any point, but only to offer such ideas to the friends of science as 
may further stimulate to a more minute investigation. Many years 
ago a Cuckoo’s egg was brought to me, taken out of a reed sparrow’s 
nest ; I immediately put it into the nest of a swallow, in an out-build- 
ing’, who had just begun to sit. On visiting it, about the time I ex- 
pected the exclusion of the young, I was surprised to find the young 
Cuckoo sole possessor of the nest. This and similar instances convinced 
me that the eggs of the foster parent could not be destroyed by the old 
Cuckoo, It was difficult to suggest what became of the bird’s eggs in 
whose nest the Cuckoo chose to deposit hers. It was unnatural to 
suppose the bird would throw out or destroy its own in preference to 
that of the intruder ; and the circumstance of young Cuckoos never 
being found with companions in the nest, could not admit of a supposi- 
tion that they were destroyed by accident. In this very unenlightened 
state, then, was the history of this bird, till Dr. Jenner proved, by a 
variety of experiments, exhibited under his own inspection, the extra- 
ordinary circumstance of the young’ Cuckoo’s turning out its nestling 
