*33 C U C U L U S 
food ; that even the adults are not bad eating in autumn ; 
but there are countries where, at no period of their age, 
in no condition of their fleih, at no feafon of the year, 
they are ever eaten, being regarded as birds unclean and 
unlucky: in others they are held propitious, and vene¬ 
rated as oracles: and fome countries there are, where it 
is imagined that the foil under the perfon’s right foot, 
who fifft hears the cuckoo’s note, is a certain preferva- 
tive againft fleas and vermin; that their plumage clianges 
much when they arrive at maturity; and laftly, that the 
cuckoos begin to appear and are heard early in the fpring ; 
that they are feeble on their arrival; that they are filent 
during the dog-days; and that a certain fpecies of them 
build in craggy rocks. Such are the principal fails in 
the hiftory of the cuckoo, which were known two thou- 
fand years ago. It was alfo afterted by the ancients, that 
the cuckoo is nothing elfe than a little fparrow-hawk 
metamorphofed ; that this change is effedted every year 
at a certain dated feafon; that, when it appears in the 
fpring, it is conveyed on the (boulders of the kite, which, 
to adift the weaknefs of its wings, is fo obliging as to 
carry it; that it difeharges upon plants a faliva which 
proves pernicious to them by engendering infedts ; that 
the female cuckoo takes care to lay into each ned (he 
can difeover, an egg like thofe contained in it, the bet¬ 
ter to deceive the mother; that the mother nurfes the 
young cuckoo, and facrifices her own brood to it, be- 
caufe they appear not fo handfome ; that, like a true ftep- 
mother, (he negledts them, or kills them, and directs the 
intruder to eat them. Some fuppofed that the female 
cuckoo returned to the ned where die had depolited her 
egg, and expelled or devoured the other young, that her 
own might fare the better: others fancied that the little 
pretender dedroyed its foder-brothers, or rendered them 
victims to its voracity, by feizing exclufively all the food 
provided by their common nurfe. Elian relates, that 
the young cuckoo, fenfible that it is an intruder, and 
afraid of being betrayed by its plumage and treated as 
fuch, flies away as foon as it can ufe its wings, and joins 
its real mother. Others pretend that the nurfe difeovers 
the fraud from the colour of its plumage, and abandons 
the intruder. Others again imagined that the young 
bird, before it flies, devours even its fecond parent, which 
had given it every thing but life ; and the cuckoo has 
hence been made the great fymbol of ingratitude. “Un¬ 
grateful as a cuckoo,” fay the Germans. Melandthon 
has left a fine harangue on the ingratitude of this bird. 
But it is abfurd to impute crimes to it that are phylically 
impofiible. Upon all thefe fuppofititious properties in 
the cuckoo, the count de Buffon has made many inge¬ 
nious remarks, fome of which we will (late. 
With refpedl to the faliva of the cuckoo, it is nothing 
elfe than a frothy exudation from the larva of a fpecies 
of grafshopper. This infedt is the cicada fpumaria of 
Linnaeus. It is frequent on brambles, withies, and grafs; 
it fettles in the forking of the flalks, and evacuates nu¬ 
merous veficles, refembling froth, under which the larva 
lies concealed. This froth, fo frequent in the fields, is 
well known by the name of cuckoo fpittle. Perhaps the 
cuckoo was obferved to feek. the larva under this froth, 
which might give occafion to its being fuppofed to depo¬ 
sit its faliva; and, as an infect was perceived to emerge, 
it would be imagined, that the faliva of the cuckoo en¬ 
gendered vermin. 
The notion that the cuckoo is annually metamorphofed 
into a fparrow-hawk, feems to have taken its rife from 
the following circumftances: the two birds are feldom 
found in our climates at the lame time; they referable 
each other in their plumage, in the colour of their eyes 
and legs, in the length of their tail, in havinga membranous 
Jlomacli and a long tail, in their fize, in their flight, and in 
their little fecundity; both live folitary, and their plumage 
is alfo fubjedt to vary ; fo that a bird which was taken 
for a beautiful merlin from its colours, was found on dif- 
fedtson to be a female cuckoo. But thefe qualities are 
% 
not what conftitute a bird of prey ; there are wanting 
the proper bill and talons, and the requifiie courage and 
ftrength, in which the cuckoo is very deficient. 
The well-afcertained fa Cl, that it lays in another’s ned, 
is the chief Angularity in its hi dory. Another Angula¬ 
rity is, that it drops only one egg, at lead in the fame 
ned. It may indeed lay more eggs, as Aridotle fuppofes, 
and which appears probable from the diffedtion of the 
females. Thefe two Angularities feem to imply a third : 
it is, that their moulting is IR/wer and more complete 
than in mod other birds. Sometimes in the winter fea¬ 
fon we find, in the hollows of trees, one or two cuckoos 
entirely naked and torpid. Father Bougaud, an author 
of credit, avers that he faw one in that date, which was 
taken out of a hollow tree about the end of December. 
Of four other cuckoos, raifed by Johnfon, as mentioned 
by Willoughby, the other by the count de Buffon, He¬ 
bert, &c. the firb languifhed on the approach of winter, 
grew fcabby, and died; the fccond and third cad the 
whole of their feathers in November ; and the fourth, 
which died towards the end of October, had lod more 
than half. The fecond and third alfo foon died ; but, 
previous to their death, they fell into a kind of numb- 
nefs and torpor. Many other fimilar facts are adduced ; 
and though it has been erroneoufly concluded, that all 
the cuckoos which make their appearance in lummer, 
remain torpid during the winter, concealed in hollow- 
trees or under ground, difrobed of their plumage, and, 
according to fome, with an ample provifion of corn: if 
thefe conclulions ought not to be wholly admitted, we 
may at lead fafely infer, that thofe which on the moment 
of their departure are fick or wounded, or too young, or 
in (hort too weak, from whatever caufe, to perform their 
diftant retreat, remain behind, and pafs the winter (he!- 
tered in the firlt hole they meet with which has a warm 
afpedt, as do the quails. In general thefe birds arc very 
late in moulting, and confequently (low in refuming their 
plumage, which is hardly reftored on their appearance 
in the beginning of fpring; accordingly, their wings are 
then very weak, and they feldom perch on lofty trees, 
but (truggle from bufli to bufli, and fometimes alight on 
the ground, where they hop like the thrufties. We may 
therefore fay, that, during the love feafon, the furplus 
food is almoit entirely fpent on the growth of the fea¬ 
thers, and can furnifh very little towards the reproduc. 
tion of the fpecies; and that, as the bird has little abili¬ 
ties for generation, it has alfo lefs ardour for all the fub- 
ordinate functions, which have the prefervation of the 
fpecies as their objedt, fuch as neftling, hatching, and 
rearing their young, &c. which all originate from the 
fame fource, and are proportioned to it. Befides, as the 
male inftindtively devours birds eggs, the female mud be 
careful to conceal hers ; (lie mult not return to the fpot 
where (he has depofited one, left the male difeover it; 
fhe muft therefore choofe the moft concealed neft, and 
which is alfo the moft remote from his ufual haunts; 
and, if (he has two eggs, (he muft entruft them to dif¬ 
ferent nurfes: and thus (he takes all the neceffary pre¬ 
cautions for her progeny, and yet carefully avoids betray¬ 
ing it through indiferetion. Viewed in this way, the con- 
dudt of the cuckoo will coincide with the general rule, 
and imply in the mother an aftedtion for her young, and 
even a rational kind of concern, which prefers their in- 
tereft to the tender fatisfadtion of aflifting them by her 
own offices. The difperfion too of the eggs in different 
nefts, whatever be the intuitive caufe, whether the ne- 
ceflity of concealing them from the male, or the fmall- 
nefs of the neft, would alone render it impoffible for the 
female to hatch them. This fadl is the more probable, 
as two eggs are often found completely formed in the 
rium, but very rarely two eggs in the fame neft. Befides, 
the cuckoo is not the only bird which never builds; 
many fpecies of titmice, woodpeckers, king-filhers, See. 
come under the fame defeription. There is alfo another 
example of a bird which never hatches its eggs; as the 
oftrichj 
