So far as we were able to ascertain from dissection
the diet of these birds consists entirely of large insects—
locusts, grasshoppers, dragonflies, beetles, and moths, in
every stage of their development. This Cuckoo is not
able to support captivity (in our English climate at
least) for any length of time. I never observed the
Great Spotted Cuckoo taking or attempting to take
insects on the wing; but on the ground it is, for a
Cuckoo, remarkably agile and rapid in movement. The
nests in which we found the eggs of this bird were
generally at a considerable height from the ground ; in
the few exceptions to this rule that came under my
own observation the nest was situated in a dense thorn-
thicket, and could not be got at without a considerable
amount of work with the bill-hook. The Spanish
country-folk eat this Cuckoo, and declare it to be good
food; but in this matter I went no further than sucking
the contents of a few of its freshly-laid eggs through a
blowpipe.
