308 
THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
be far too small to contain the whole family; so the young bird, almost as soon 
as it can scramble about the nest, sets deliberately to work to turn out all the 
other eggs or nestlings. This it accomplishes by getting its tail under each egg 
or young bird in succession, wriggling them on to its back, and then cleverly 
pitching them over the side of the nest. It is rather curious that in its earlier 
days it only throws the eggs 
over, its more murderous pro¬ 
pensities not being developed 
until a more advanced age. 
There seems to be some 
peculiarity in the nature of 
the cuckoo which forces other 
birds to cater for its benefit, 
as even in the case of a tame 
and wing-clipped cuckoo , which 
was allowed to wander about 
a lawn, the little birds used 
to assemble about it with food 
in their mouths, and feed it 
as long as it chose to demand 
their aid. 
Generally, the color of the cuckoo is bluish-gray above and along the back, 
with wings of black barred on the tips with white. The largest species is the 
Giant Cuckoo (Scythrops prcesagus ) 
of New Guinea, the characteristics 
of which are very much like the 
toucan. Other species very com¬ 
monly known are admirably pic¬ 
tured in the accompanying engrav¬ 
ings. The Ant-eating Cuckoo 
(\Crotophaga am) is confined to 
North America, but the large bill is 
very suggestive of the toucan. In the 
West Indies, where this bird is also 
found, a dozen or more have been 
known to build a single nest in 
which they deposited their eggs, 
sometimes thirty or more, and also 
do their hatching in communistic 
fashion, each female in turn doing 
her proportion of the incubating, 
and afterwards all uniting in the 
care of the young. 
The Chaparral Cock ( Geo¬ 
coccyx californianus) is an American species included among the cuckoos for 
want of a more appropriate classification. It is chiefly found in the chaparral 
regions of the southwest, from whence the name is taken. It is a good flyer 
but seldom quits the ground, being so swift of foot that a dog does not easily 
overtake it. The food of this species is insects, and the smaller lizards and 
almond cuckoo (Coracias garrula). 
