202 
ICTERUS PECORIS. 
more we reflect on it ; namely, that he has formed no 
species of animals so minute, or obscure, that are not 
invested with certain powers and peculiarities, both of 
outward conformation, and internal faculties, exactly 
suited to their pursuits, sufficient to distinguish them 
from all others ; and forming for them a character 
solely and exclusively their own. This is particularly 
so among the feathered race. If there be any case 
where these characteristic features are not evident, it 
is owing to our want of observation ; to our little 
intercourse with that particular tribe ; or to that con- 
tempt for inferior animals, and all their habitudes, 
which is but too general, and which bespeaks a morose, 
unfeeling, and unreflecting mind. These peculiarities 
are often surprising, always instructive where under- 
stood, and, (as in the subject of our present chapter,) 
at least amusing, and worthy of being farther investi- 
gated. 
The most remarkable trait in the character of this 
species is, the unaccountable practice it has of dropping 
its eggs into the nests of other birds, instead of building 
and hatching for itself ; and thus entirely abandoning 
its progeny to the care and mercy of strangers. More 
than two thousand years ago, it was well known, in 
those countries where the bird inhabits, that the cuckoo 
of Europe ( cuculus conorus ) never built herself a nest, 
but dropt her eggs in the nests of other birds ; but, 
among the thousands of different species that spread 
over that and other parts of the globe, no other instance 
of the same uniform habit has been found to exist, until 
discovered in the bird now before us. Of the reality of 
the former there is no doubt ; it is known to every 
schoolboy in Britain ; of the truth of the latter I can 
myself speak with confidence, from personal observation, 
and from the testimony of gentlemen, unknown to 
each other, residing in different and distant parts of 
the United States. The circumstances by which I 
became first acquainted with this peculiar habit of the 
bird are as follows : — * 
I had, in numerous instances, found in the nests of 
