

. 
| 
os 
: 
oer. 8 1 R-o.S 67 
“Hf they find the callow neftlings which have 
fallen victims to the young Cuckoo they are 
furnifhed with food well adage to their pecu- 
liar ftate. * 
Cuckoos feed upon infects and birds eggs ; but 
never upon birds; indeed, they are fearful, and 
fly from the fmall birds, who continually purfue 
and teize them; but the bird called the Wry- 
Neck is their chief tormentor, for he is ever fol- 
_ Jowing them, and warning the little birds of their 
approach. 
‘On many plants in the fummer, a froth is fre- 
quently found, which fome people have fancied 
to be the Cuckoo’s fpittle, but this is quite a 
 -miftake ;, for this froth comes from an infect 
‘a 
i 
talled the Cicada, and is intended as a fhelter for 
its larva (or the young Cicadas in their grub ftate. ) 
Cuckoos moult or fhed their feathers very 
late; and it is faid they have fometimes been 
found in the winter, in hollow trees, without any 

feathers, and in appearance much like a toad. 
Cuckoos, after they are hatched, cannot take 
care of themfelves as foon as many little birds, 
and they continue to follow the bird in whofe 
* The preceding account is gathered from Mr; Jenner’s 
Letter to John Hunter, Efq. inferted in the Phil. Tran. 
‘Vol. 78. Part 2s. 
neft 





