Cuckoos for the most part haunt woods, and manifest a preference to those which are situated on shelving grounds and hills, frequenting the neighbourhood, and constantly returning into the circuit which they had selected for their summer quarters. They are then unusually solitary, and have the appearance of being restless, as they are per petually flitting from one spot to another, and are every day a considerable time on wing, without, however, taking long flights at once, being impelled to these move ments in search of their most suitable food. They ramble about in all directions, sometimes halting on the tops or trees, sometimes plunging into the thickest coverts, and every where pursuing insects, and picking up caterpillars. They likewise cat the eggs of small birds, and discover, with singular sagacity, the best concealed nests. A single cuckoo is not easily approached, and, by flitting front tree to tree without removing to any great distance, will often exhaust the patience of the sportsman.
With the natural history of this species much fable and absurdity have been blended, which we have neither room nor inclination to state or to confute. That part of its economy, which we have presently to unfold, is sufficiently anomalous, without superadding to it the tales of igno rance and superstition. We do not even assert absolutely, that the cuckoo never builds a nest, or takes charge of her young, like almost all other birds. On the contrary, a few well-authenticated instances of its breeding in the or dinary manner are on record. Thus the Hon. Dailies Barrington informs us, that, as the Rev. W. Stafford was one day walking in Blossopdale, Derbyshire, he saw a cuckoo rke from its nest, which was on the stump of an old tree that had been felled some time, and nearly re sembling the colour of the tree. In this nest were two young birds, one of which he fastened to the ground by means of a peg and line ; and, for a few days, very fre quently saw the old cuckoos feeding them. The same writer quotes two other examples of a similar nature; one of which occurred within a few mires of London, and the other on the south-west coast of Merioneth. Mr. Wilmot, of Morley, in Derbyshire, mentioned to Dr. Darwin, that he observed a cuckoo for some time on its nest before and after the eggs were hatched ; and also bringing food to the young ones, to which it showed great attachment. It is at the same time certain, that by far the greater number of the species make no nest, and leave their eggs to be hatch ed by other birds. Dr. Edward Jenner, one of the great est benefactors of mankind, in a paper inserted in Vol. LXXVIII. of the Philosophical Transactions, and Dr. Lottinger, who devoted much of his time to investigate the manners of the present species, have proved this re markable fact beyond all dispute. The nest which the fe male cuckoo selects is most commonly that of the hedge sparrow, though sometimes that of the water-wagtail, yel low wren, tit-lark, yellow-hammer, green-linnet, or some other small insectivorous bird. It is, at first sight, difficult to conceive how such a large bird as the cuckoo should insinuate its egg into the nest of a wren, for example, with out in the least discomposing so delicate a structure ; but Levaillant mentions, that he has seen the female of an Afri can species of this genus swallow the egg, and retain it in thee=sophagus, till she dropped it into the nest ; and a person worthy of credit assured M. Vieillot that he wit nessed the same proceeding in the female of the present species. According to Dr. Jenner, while the hedge-spar row is laying her eggs, which generally occupies four or five days, the cuckoo contrives to deposit one of her own among them, an intrusion which is seldom unattended with inconvenience ; for the old sparrow, while sitting, not only throws out, at intervals, some of her own eggs, but occa sionally injures them in such a way, that they become addle, so that often not more than two or three of the pa rent birds' eggs are hatched with that of the cuckoo ; and, what is very remarkable, it has never been observed that the sparrow has thrown' out or injured that of the latter. When she has sat her usual time, and disengaged the young cuckoo and some of her own offspring from the shell, her young ones, and any of the eggs that remain unhatched, are soon turned out, when the young cuckoo remains in full possession of the nest, and is the sole object of the fu ture care of its foster parent. The mode by which it contrives to eject the legitimate occupants of the nest is truly curious ; for, by the aid of its rump and wings, it gets the young sparrow on its back, and, making a lodg ment for the burden, by elevating its elbows, clambers back with it, up the side of the nest, till it reaches the top, where, resting for a moment, it throws off its load with a jerk, and quite disengages it from the nest. It then remains for a little time in that situation, and feels alyiut w ith the extremities of its wings, to be convinced that the business is properly executed, after which it drops into the nest main. Dr. Jenner made several experiment;
on different nests, by repeatedly putting in an egg to the young cuckoo, which was always disposed of in the same manner ; and it is very remarkable, that nature seems to have provided for this singular disposition of the cuckoo in its formation at this period ; for, unlike every other newly-hatched bird, its back, from the scapula down wards, is very broad, with a considerable depression in the middle, as if intended for giving a more secure position to the egg of the hedge-sparrow, or young one that is cast out. When it is about twelve days old, this cavity is quite filled up ; and at this time, its disposition for ex pelling its companion entirely ceases. A, the same cuckoo deposits only one egg in a nest, it has been hastily inferred that she laid no more ; but it has been found, on dissection, that her ovary contains several ; and we may reasonably presume that they are deposited in different nests. When two are included in the same nest, as some times happens, they are probably deposited by different individuals ; and, if they are both hatched, the exti uded birds contend fiercely for the mastery till one of them is killed. From Dr. Lottinger's observations, it seems to re sult that the parent cuckoos sometimes hover about in the vicinity of the nest, occasionally visiting their offspring, and that they recognize them when they take wing. But had this been uniformly the case, it could scarcely have escaped Dr. Jenner's notice. The attempt of the parent cuckoo to introduce her egg into the nest is sometimes successfully resisted by the proprietor, but the usurpation is generally effected in the temporal., absence of the latter. No satisfactory reason has been hitherto assigned for this peculiarity in the economy of the cuckoo : for the anato mical argument advanced by Herrisant, and deduced from the conformation of the stomach and sternum, turns out to be quite unfounded ; nor does the alleged short resi dence of the parents in the breeding latitudes afford any better solution of the phenomenon, it having been now as certained that the old and young birds migrate at the same time. The egg of the cuckoo is about the size of that of the butcher-bird, having a very thin shell, of a round form, and of a dirty white ground, marked with reddish dots, and some black lines, irregularly dispersed Sepp has erroneously figured it as that of the goatsucker. The young, which are very clamorous for the insect food brought to them by their foster parents, grow rapidly, and continue for three weeks in the nest. If molested, they will bristle up their feathers, and assume a fierce and pug nacious attitude. In their stomach are often found small balls of horse-hair, which they have a trick of detaching from the nest in which they are reared. Balls composed of a more delicate hairy substance are met with in the stomach of the adult birds, obviously proceeding from the hairy caterpillars on which they feed ; for, in place of re jecting these, they seem to he partial to them. Although the young are long of manifesting much sagacity, they are capable of being tamed ; and, when in confinement, they will eat bread, milk, fruit, insects, eggs, and even flesh, either raw or dressed. In its natural state, however, it is by no means a carnivorous bird, although it has been often described as such. Neither does it long survive captivity; for it rarely lives beyond the first winter, and most fre quently dies in the course of it. Confinement seems also to suppress the growth of its mature plumage, and its vernal song. The Romans greatly valued this bird as an article of food ; and the French and Italians eat it at this day. When fattened, it is said to be as delicate as tne land-rail.
C. ?inzericanus, Lath. Cuv. Coccyzus pyropterus. Vieil. Carolina cuckoo, Body cinereous above, white beneath; lower mandible yellow ; tail wedge-shaped. The upper parts of the female are of a faint brown-grey. Size of the black-bird, and ten inches eight lines in length. Inhabits the western world, from Jamaica to Canada, and is not un common in Carolina. It arrives in the United States in May, but departs in October, to winter in the West In dies. It generally haunts the thickest recesses of forests, but approaches houses during the season of ripe cherries, when it frequents orchards and groves, attracted by the fruits and wild berries of autumn. The male and female are seldom seen together, even during the breeding sea son. The note of the male is sometimes analogous to that of the European species, but so feeble, that it is audi ble only at a small distance. The nest, which is placed in a tree, is outwardly composed of chic,' twigs and roots, and within, of fine grass and hair ; and the hatch consists of four or five bluish-brown eggs.