D S. 
81 
Clafs II.] B I R 
the leafing and fruiting of certain plants; this in- 
genious writer would eftablifh a natural calendar 
in our rural oeconomy ; to inftru£l us in the time 
of fowing our moft ufeful feeds* or of doing fuch 
work as depends on a certain temperament of the 
air. As the fallibility of human calendars need 
not be infilled on, we mull recommend to our 
countrymen fome attention to thefe feathered 
guides, who come heaven-taught, and point out 
the true commencement of the feafon*; their 
food being the infers of thofe feafons they con¬ 
tinue with usi 
The cuckoo is filent for fome little time after 
his arrival: his note is a call to love, and ufed 
only by the male, who fits perched generally on 
fome dead tree, or bare bough, and repeats his 
fong, Which he loles as foon as the amorous 
feafon is over. In a trap, which we placed on a 
tree frequented by cuckoos, we caught not fewer 
than five male birds in one feafon ; his note 
is fo uniform, that his name in all languages 
feems to have been derived from it; and in all 
Other countries it is ufed in the fame reproach¬ 
ful fenfe. 
'* In Sweden, which is a much colder climate than our own, the cuckoo 
does not appear fo early by near a month. 
the plain fong cuckoo grey, 
whofe note full many a man doth mark, 
and dares not anfwer nay. Shakefpear. 
The reproach feems to arife from this bird mak¬ 
ing ufe of the bed or nell of another to depofit 
its eggs in; leaving the care of its young to a 
wrong parent. A water-wagtail, or hedge-fpar- 
row is generally the nurfe of the young cuckoos $ 
who, if they happen to be hatched at the fame 
time with the genuine off-fpring, foon deftroy 
them, by overlaying them, as their growth is fooii 
fo fuperior. This want in the cuckoo of the 
common attention other birds have to their 
young; feems to arife from fome defe£t in its 
make, that difables it from incubation 5 but what 
that is, we confefs ourfelves ignorant, referring 
the enquiry to fome fkilful anatomift. 
The weight of the cuckoo is a little more than 
five ounces ; the length is fourteen inches} the 
breadth twenty-five ; the colors of both male and 
female are very faithfully given in the plates. 
We need only add, that the interior fides of the 
quil feathers are marked with large oval white 
jfpots ; that the irides are yellow ; and tho’ it 
never is obferved to run up the bodies of trees ? 
the toes are difpofed like thofe of the woodpecker. 
GENUS VIII. The NUTHATCH. 
SPECIES I. The Nuthatch. Plate H. 
The Nuthatch, or nut jobber. JVil. 
orn. 142. 
Railfyn. av. 47. 
The Woodcracker. Plotfs hift . 
Oxf. 175. 
T H E nuthatch weighs near an ounce ; 
its length is five inches three-quarters ; 
breadth nine inches ; the bill is ftrong 
and ftrait, about three-quarters of an inch long ; 
the irides hazel; the crown of the head, back, 
Sitta. Brijfon av. 3. 588. Tab. 29. 
fig- 3 - 
Sitta europsea. Lin. Jyft. 115., 
Picus cinereus ? feu fitta. Gefner av. 
711. 
and coverts of the wings are of a fine bluilh grey : 
a black ftroke pafles over the eye from the mouth : 
the breaft and belly are of a dull orange color ; 
the quil-feathers are dulky ; the wings underneath 
are marked with two fpots, one white at the root 
V of 
