C U CKO 0 . — Cuculus can or us. 
The common Cuckoo is well known for its welcome chant, the sign that the 
colds of winter have passed away ; and as an heartless mother, an abandoner of 
her offspring, and an occupier of other homes, it has been subjected to general 
reprobation. As is usual in such cases, both opinions are too sweeping; for 
the continual cry of “ Cuck-oo ! cuck-oo ! 57 however agreeable it may be on the 
first hearing, soon becomes monotonous and fatiguing to the ear ; and the mother 
Cuckoo is not so far lost to all feelings of maternity as to take no thought for her 
young, but ever remains near the place where it has deposited her egg, and seems 
to keep watch over the foster parents. 
It is well known that the female Cuckoo does not make any nest, but places 
her egg in the nest of some small bird, and leaves it to the care of its unwit- 
ting foster-parents. Various birds are burdened with this charge, such as the 
hedge-warbler, the pied-wagtail, the meadow-pipit, the red-backed shrike, the 
blackbird, and various finches. Generally, however, the three first are those 
preferred. 
Considering the size of the mother bird, the egg of the Cuckoo is remarkably 
small, being about the same size as that of the skylark, although the latter bird 
has barely one-fourth the dimensions of the former. 
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