Picine and Cuckoo-like Birds. 
93 
Cuckoo does not make a nest of its own, but places its egg in those of other 
birds, leaving the latter to hatch it out along with their own rightful offspring. 
Then when all the young birds are hatched together, the young Cuckoo disposes 
of the occupants of the nest by tilting them over the side, so that they perish while 
the Cuckoo endures, and receives for the rest of the summer the unremitting care 
and attention of its two foster parents. The eggs of the Cuckoo vary ad infinitum . 
Some are brown, others are grey, with or without darker brown mottling, some 
are quite pale, others whitish with dark brown spots, while some are even clear 
blue ; they are remarkable for their small size, considering the bulk of the bird 
which lays them, and this doubtless renders the deception practised on the foster- 
mother more easy of accomplishment, as the Cuckoo’s egg so little exceeds that 
of the rightful owner of the nest. 
The food of the Cuckoo consists almost entirely of insects, and the fact that it 
robs other birds of their eggs has been noted by some recent observers, but when 
the bird has been shot with an egg in its mouth, there can be no doubt that it is 
often the Cuckoo’s own egg which it was carrying at the time to some nest it 
intended to victimise. That the Cuckoo lays its egg on the ground and then carries 
it in its bill to the nest selected for its deposition seems to be a well-established fact. 
The range of the Cuckoo extends over Europe and Siberia, and it winters in 
Western and Southern Africa as well as the Indian Peninsula. It is a common 
bird in Northern Europe in the summer, and 
in Northern Norway I have heard the birds 
calling abundantly in June, while doubtless the 
number of Meadow Pipits’ nests on the moors 
afford ample opportunity for the exercise of its 
parasitic habits. 
The present species 
THE occasionally strays to 
GREAT SPOTTED „ T , . , ■ 
Creat Britain, having 
CUCKOO. ’ & 
(Coccystes glandarius.) been captured on two 
occasions, once in Ire- 
land, and once in Northumberland. It has 
occurred in many places in Central Europe, 
but its breeding-home is in the Mediterranean 
countries, where it nests in Southern Spain 
and Northern Africa. In winter it betakes 
itself to Western Africa and even reaches 
to the Cape Colony. Like our Common 
Cuckoo, its southern relative is parasitic 
in its nesting habits, and it deposits its eggs 
in the nests of Crows and Magpies, some- 
The Great Spotted Cuckoo. 
