CUCKOO. 
251 
1NSESS ORES. CUCULI DjE. 
SC AN SO RES. 
CUCKOO 
CUCULUS CANORUS. 
PLATE LXIII. FIGS. I. AND EL 
So much is already known of the singular, and appa¬ 
rently unnatural, way in which the Cuckoo deserts its egg 
after laying it in the nest, and leaving it to the care of 
another and a strange bird, that I have not thought it 
necessary to repeat the often-quoted and interesting ob¬ 
servations of the late Dr. Jenner; neither have I any 
original ones of my own to offer. It would, however, 
have afforded me much pleasure, could I have thrown 
any light on these interesting points with regard to 
the economy of this bird,—what number of eggs it lays 
in one season, and whether or not it ever carries its 
egg, after having laid it, to the nest of another bird. 
Mr. Williamson, of Scarborough, informs me that he has 
found the egg of the Cuckoo in the nest of the rock-lark, 
close under the projecting shelf of a rock, and in a situa¬ 
tion where he considers it impossible for the Cuckoo to 
have deposited it in any other way. La Vaillant, in his 
“ Travels in Africa/' mentions having in many instances 
shot a species of Cuckoo in the act of thus transporting 
its own egg in its mouth. 
The eggs of the Cuckoo are found in the nests of se¬ 
veral of our small birds. Of these, Mr. Yarrell enume¬ 
rates thirteen species, to which 1 have to add the name 
