CIICULUS, Lin. &c. CUCKOO.
Bill of the same length as the head, compressed, and faintly arched ; mandibles notchless ; nostrils basal, pierced in the margins of the mandible, and surrounded by a naked and prominent membrane ; legs feathered under the knee ; tail long, and more or less graduated; wings of moderate size, the third quill the longest.
The cuckoos are a shy and solitary race of birds, which live chiefly on insects and caterpillars, and are remarkable for depositing their eggs, one by one, in the nests of some of the smaller birds. Only one species is a native of Great Britain, and very few belong to Europe. The limits of the genus have been recently considerably cir cuinscribed.
C. canorus, Lin. &c. Common Cuckoo, Prov. Gowk. Head, neck, and throat, cinereous ; breast and belly whitish, transversely striated with fuscous ; back and wings black ish, tail-feathers blackish, externally spotted with whitish, as is the middle of the intermediate quills. When young, the whole body is brownish, and the feathers are edged -with white. The female is somewhat smaller than the male, but has generally the same markings. The details of colouring, however, in both sexes, are so subject to vary, that M. Gerardin assures us, that, in his numerous col lection of individuals, scarcely any two are marked alike ; and this circumstance has proved the source of more con: fusion and perplexity in the extrication of the genus, than we can stop to particularize.
This well known species inhabits Europe, Asia, and Africa, is found as high as Finmark, within the arctic cir cle,and as far east as Karitschatka. It is a stated migrant, arriving, for the purpose of breeding, in different countries, earlier or later in the season, according as the temperature of the climate unfolds the insects on which it feeds. With us it usually makes its appearance pretty early in April, is silent for a few days, and begins to utter the cry front which it has derived its name, in almost every language, about the middle of the month. This, which is the note
of the male, ceases about the close of June. The female makes only occasionally a chattering noise, which bears sonic resemblance to the cry of the dabchick. From the silence of the male, it had been supposed that the old birds directed their course southwards, early in July; but their silence is occasioned by the approach of their moulting, and most of them take their departure between the first and 15th of September. Such as are observed later are the tardy young of that year, or wounded or sickly strag glers. A person worthy of credit assured Linne, that, very late in the autumn, he saw a cuckoo perched on a hop-pole, and Sin gin g On which occasion the celebrated naturalist remarks, that birds in autumn are sometimes visited with the gay associations of the spring. In general, the first sensations of cold, or the failure of insects and soft fruits, which last they will eat in default of the former, induce the cuckoos to pass into the warmer regions of Africa. In Malta, and the Greek islands, where they are seen twice a-year on their transit, they arrive with the turtle doves, and as they are far less numerous than the latter, the na tives call them their leaders or guides. During these mi grations the cuckoo is no longer a solitary bird, but asso ciates in flocks with its own species, and even unites with those of others. No longer impelled also by the desire of reproducing its kind, the male is mute. Love, therefore, alone is possibly the cause of the insulation of the indi viduals in spring, and the early part of summer ; for, after that period, young and old have been seen together in flights of ten or twelve. When on the ground they have a hopping march ; but they seldom alight on the soil, owing probably to the shortness of their legs and thighs. When young, they seem not to make use of their legs in walking, but drag themselves along on their belly by means of their bill, as parrots do in climbing.