nine or ten days, remove a nestling that had been placed
in the nest with it, when it suffered an egg, put there at
the same time, to remain unmolested. The singularity of
its shape is well adapted' to these purposes; for, different
from other newly hatched birds,' its back from the shoulders
downwards is very broad, with a considerable depression in
the middle.% This depression -seems formed by nature for the
design of giving a moré secure lodgement to an egg, or a
young bird, when the young Cuckoo is employed in removing
either of them from the nest. When it is about- twelvé days
old, this cavity is ;quite filled up, and then the back assumes
thé shape of nestling, birds in general;’’- The • substances
found in the stomach of young Cuckoos?are various, depending
upon th e . species' of bird by which they are fed. They
consist of flies, /beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and small
snails. When fed? by any of the-Finches*1-which-are rather
vegetable feeders, theyare supplied with young wheat, small
vetches, tender shouts of grass, and seéds. AdultJËncköös
seem most partial to hairy caterpillars.- The young are frequently
found in. a hest in a hedge-row by.their almost incessant
querulous note, which appears to be a call f§r. food ;
and they are vomcious-feeders. The.young are-sometimes;;"
by great care, kept 'aMve in confinement-over their first winter,
but seldom survive ’long afterwards. - The .‘best food for
them is raw beef chopped small, and mixed with yelk of ègg.
fj To what cause then,” says Dr. Jenner, “ may we.attfiiute
the singularities of the Cuckoo ? May they no t' be owing to
the following circumstances. ?' The short residence this bird
is allowed to make in the country where it is destined to propagate
its species, and the call that nature has upon it,
during that short residence, to produce a numerous, progeny.
The Cuckoo’s first appearance here; is about the middle of
April; commonly on the 17th. Its egg is not ready for
incubation till some weeks after its arrival, seldom before the:
middle of May;? A fortnight is taken up by the sitting bird
in hatching the egg. The->young bird generally continues
three; weeks in the nest before it flies, and the foster-parents
feed it more than five weeks after this period; so that if a
Cuckoo should be ready with an egg much sooner than the
time pointed out, not a single nestling, even one of the
earliest', would be fit to provide for itself before its parent
would be instinctively'directed to - seek a new residence, and
be thus compelled to. ? abandon its |'young, one ; for old
Cuckoos take their final? leave of this country the first week
in July.” '\ This, however, I may here remark, is not always
the case. The notfëhoif the male *-have been heard as late as
the .end\©f July. The, males arrive before the females in
spring, and probablyileavè g|g before them in summer. The
young,birds of ;the year do not go till September; and Mr.
Rodd of Penzane^ssends me word that he has known them
remain in Cornwall till October. •
M. Temmirick, in the Supplement to the first volume of
his -Manual, mentions fchat ?M. Schlegel, one of the Assistant
Naturalistsvih thé Museum- at Leyden, had in a memoir addressed
itoï the -Natural History Society of Harlem* supplied
details of great interest on thé probable causes which induce
thé^Common Cuckoo, and a ll: those species which deposit
their eggs in the nésts of small insectivorous birds, not? to
burthen themselves with the hatching or the feeding of their
young.. “ The principal cause alleged in the case of the
Cuckopj' is the particular nature and effect of its food producing
an enlargement of the stomach, which appears to influence
the developement of ithe eggs in the ovarium; these are
known to -fee very small, and the bird lays at intervals of six
or ejght days.”
. Whatever influence may really be attributable to the
nature or quantity of the food taken by tbe Cuckoo, there is
good reason to believe that it does produce its eggs at inter