vals of several days, and this is now known to be the case, in
the Yellow-billed Cuckoo of America,.which does bring up
its own young. iPour examples, of this Mid- having been shot
in this country, it entitled to ra-place in this work,' and its
history will follow in detail; it mayh.e..sufficient here briefly
to state that the nests of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo,; when
examinedLcontained no two-eggs or young- birds of’-’thfe same
age ; but all. exhibited an obvibus. difference of"several days
between their various :stagesi.©f advancement/?
I have/constantly*.observed, when! examining the .anatomical
structure of our Cuckoo, the small comparative tgilb^f the
parts destined to effect the reproduction'- of < the speqiiQKt- /On
this subject -I furnished a.note to Mr. J aides. ^ednings." -avha&h
was published in his Ornithologia igiïlS28/ Dr./Lmner-bin
his paper on > the migration?of birdh, Says thabhe^had'.■n.eyer
found the internal séxual organs of the naale.'<GuckM/i&o/la-ige
as those of the. Wren, yet the two birds compared in/steiap-
as six to one. Mr. Thoi®psanv of Belfast, wfrb.idissecfèd. a
female Cuckoo bn thê 28th of May f&^wsays, it did not
contain any -eggs -no' large as ordinary-sized peas. May 5n$J
thé small size“ of these .organs, and the probable dbw^degree of
excitement, also ‘diminish the interest attached to ihapfbvidr
ing for-the-wantSi of-theayaung!? but th a b lh is^ b ip g ^ s n it
wholly obliterated in every instance - is thé e^nidnf^M'C.: J.
E. Gray;o f the British. Muse.um.; who, .from-: observations
made/by Jaimsélfr states -»that the Uuqkbd tdo^dfot uniformly
desert her' offspring to the/extent that has been.supposed;;-
but;. on the .contrary, that shejeontinueS. Jmo thé precincts
where the eggs. are .deposited, a sd in all pjobabiltyislométimes.
takes the-youig under her protection when - they are suffix
ciently fledged to,leave the nest;:. <
. The Cuckoo:? igteommonjysdistributed every, summer eVer
England, Ireland, and S c o tla n d if also visits Orkneys»^ I t 4s
found in Denmark and Sweden, and over .Scandinavia gener.
rally. Mr. Barrow, when in the northern part of Norway,
heard the Cuckoo near Rofaas, at an elevation of three thousand
fèèt above>5the lev-ekjbf the. sea; and Linnaeus, in the
'É ïïé b ilitMs Tljiitfif;- Laplaudb mentions having heard the
CUckoo there-as early as the 18th of May, and as late as the
10th-of-July. Thisfbird. ,ie fpjind in Siberia, and over great
p'art o f‘ Asia. v-The -Zoological;,’Society have received/speci-
meiïs from- t&e- Himalaya Mbimtafns, which are precisely
similar British ‘bird, and- quite distinct .from the Cucu-
Ms micropterus'^of'M-Y. John- Gould 'from the same locality,
which, .ithough.yery /lake our bird inUsize and colour',-is at
ont'eVdistiuMdShed-fromdt %y its larger beak,- shorter wings,
—whence its ■ name,—arid its smaller1, feet. A collection of
birds, formed lay Major James Franklin, P.R.S. on the banks
öf ^ th é-Ganges,“ and in-the mountain- chain of Upper Hin-
doostan, uxhifeted- at the^oological Society tin- August 1881,
•Hgteludes'iSpe'cimens/of twhich. it is stated in thé Procëedings x>f
th'ë Society for that year, page 12 1, “ .This bird, on'com-
pjtóspnf wfttó the Common ** Cuckoo/ differs ^JbvMttle that it
can' Scarcely; be called a varietyt^it^ theuGommon Cuckoo of
India,‘.rand tits habits and nfrite /resemble those of the Euro-
^l^fbirdi.’i-^^lorielr-Bykes alsoÜndndéê it in his Catalogue
Birds -of-the.Dukhun, but says “it is v rare. M. Tem-
minck s%®*ifo»is found in -Japan ; Dr. Horsfield7 includes it
bsClHiV’Catalogue» M the Birds’of ‘Java ; and Pennant, in his
Arctic -Zohlngy; says iti-igbegias far' east', as Kamptschatka.
This bird, as might - -bè ’eXphcthdj, visits the whole of the Eu-
r'op'ean^continenti atemaining in Italy from April to .Sèptem-
it'iSPitMalsofth^jMorea and the Grecian Archipelago,
from, whence it goes to-Africa .wijth. the Turtle-dove, and is
cabed l^iia name that Signifies. Turtle Leader. Mr. Strickland
saw thè‘Cuéfe^|at Smyrna in April, and the Zoological
Society havetateei^éd' specimens', sent by Messrs. Dickson
and Ross-; from Erzerum.According to M. Teniminck, the