CUCULUS, the Cuckow, in natural his tory, a genus of birds, of the order Ili cm. Generic character: bill smooth, somewhat bending and weak ; nostrils surrounded by a small rim ; tongue short and arrowed ; toes two forward and two backward ; tail wedge-formed, of ten soft feathers. Gmelin enumerates fifty-five species, and Latham forty-six. The fol lowing are most deserving of notice : C. Canorus, the Common Cuckow of Europe. This bird is about fourteen inches long. It is found in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Its food consists of insects and the larvae of moths, but when domesticated, which it may be without much difficulty, it will eat bread, fruits, eggs, and even flesh. When fattened, it is said to be excellent for the table. It is in Great Britain a bird of passage, appearing first about the mid, dle of April, and cheering the vicinity of its habitation with that well-known note with which so many exquisite ideas and feelings are associated. This note is tised only by the male bird, and is the in timation of love. It has, very rarely only, been heard, like the song of the nightin gale, in the middle of the night. About the close of June this note ceases, but the cuckow remains in England till towards the end of September. It is imagined sometimes to continue in the country for the who of the year, as it has occasion ally been seen there so early as February. Cuckows are supposed to winter in Afri ca, as they are seen twice a year in the island of Malta.
With the history of these birds have been blended much fable and supersti tion ; their manners, however, are un questionably in a high degree curious, and fable, in this as in many other cases, is in a great degree connected with fact. It is almost universally agreed by natu ralists, that the cuckow does not hatch its own eggs, but deposits them in the nest of some other bird. Bufl'on mentions the names of twenty birds, or more, on whom the cuckow passes this fraud. Those most frequently duped by it, how ever, in this manner, are the yellow ham mer, the water-wagtail, and the hedge sparrow, and of these three, by far more than the other two, the hedge-sparrow. The most minute and attentive examiner into this extraordinary peculiarity is Mr. Edward Jenner, from whose observations on this interesting subject we shall select a few of the most important. He states, that the hedge-sparrow is generally four or five days in completing her number of eggs, during which time the cuckow finds an opportunity of introducing to the nest one of its own, leaving the future management of it to the hedge.sparrow; and though it frequently occurs that the latter is much discomposed by this in trusion, and several of the eggs are in jured by her, and obliged to be removed from the nest, he states that the egg of the cuckow is never of' this number. When the usual time of incubation is completed, and the young sparrows and cuckow are disengaged from the eggs, the former are ejected' from the nest, and the stranger obtains exclusive pos session. A nest built in a situation ex tremely convenient for minute observa tion fell under the particular examina tion of this gentleman, and was found on the first day to contain a cuckow's and three hedge-sparrow's eggs. On the day
following he observed a young cuckow and a young hedge-sparrow, and as he could distinctly perceive every thing passing, he was resolved to watch the events which might take place. He soon, with extreme surprise, saw the young cuckow, born only the day before, ex erting itself with its rump and wings CO take the young sparrow on its back, which it actually accomplished, and then climbed backwards with its burden to the verge of the nest, from which, with a sudden jerk, it clearly threw off its load ; after which it dropped back into the nest, having first, however, felt about with the extremities of its wings, as if to ascertain whether the clearance were completely effected. Several eggs were afterwards put in to the young usurper, which were all similarly disposed of. He observes, that in another instance, two cuckows and a hedge-sparrow were hatched in the same nest, and one hedge sparrow's egg remained unhatched. Within a few hours a conflict began be tween the two cuckows for the posses sion of the nest, which was conducted with extreme spirit and vigour, and in which each appeared occasionally to have the advantage, lifting its adversary to the very brink of the nest, and then, from exhaustion of strength, sinking with it again to the bottom. These vicissi tudes of success were repeated and re. iterated, but towards the close of the fol lowing day the contest was decided in favour of the bird which was rather the larger of the two, who completely expel led his rival ; after which the egg and the young hedge-sparrow were dislodg ed with extreme facility. The infant conquerer was brought up by the step mother with the most assiduous affec tion. The sagacity of the female cuckow appears not inconsiderable, in her intro ducing her egg into the nests of birds whose young are inferior in size and strength to the young cuckow, and which the latter is consequently able to exclude without difficulty from its usurped dominions. See AWES, Plate VI. fig. 1.
C. Indicator, or the Honey-guide. This is an inhabitant of the interior of Africa, and is supposed to feed principally upon honey ; it is at least extremely fond of it, and possesses an extraordinary sagacity in discovering where it is to be found. The Dutch farmers and Hottentots near the Cape are reported to derive essential service from this bird. They imitate its peculiar sounds in the morning or even ing, before it goes to feed, till they at length get within hearing and sight of it ; and when it moves off to its repast, they follow, as:correctly as they are able, the direction of its flight, and scarcely ever fail to arrive at some store of wild honey, of which, it is added, they make a liberal allowance to their little guide. It is cer tain, however, that these people have an extreme regard, and almost veneration, for this bird, founded on its utility ; and the curiosity of the celebrated Dr. Sparr man was not gratified by the destruction of one as a specimen for his collections, without exciting high resentment and disdain.