THE CUCKOOS.
The Cuckoos are about the size of a Turtle Dove. They have beaks about as long as the head, slightly curved and compressed, and rather long and rounded tails, and long pointed wings. There are several kinds of Birds belonging to this group, some of which differ from the Cuckoos proper, in having short wings and long tapering tails. Among these are found the Trogons, Honey-guides, Anis or Annos, Barbets and the Touracos or Plantain-eaters. These different species belong to all the countries of the old continent.
Only one species is found in Europe—the Grey, or European Cuckoo. These are migratory Birds; they pass the warm season in Europe, and the winter in Africa, or in the warm parts of Asia.
Cuckoos are celebrated for the peculiar manner in which they raise their young. They do not build a nest, nor cover their eggs, neither do they take care of their young. They place their eggs in the nests of other Birds, such as the Lark, the Robin, the Hedge Sparrow, the Thrush, Blackbird, etc. They leave the care of hatching their eggs, and even the care of the young Birds to these strangers. Cuckoos lay eight to ten eggs in the space of a few weeks. When an egg has been laid the Bird picks it up in her beak, and carries it to the first unoccupied nest that she can find, and there deposits it when the owner of the nest is away. The next egg is placed in a neighboring nest, but never in the same as the first. The mother shows great intelligence in this, for by placing two eggs in the same nest of a smaller Bird, the greater size of her little ones would crowd the space intended by the builder, for smaller Birds of her own. And two Robins or Hedge-sparrows would be kept very busy feeding such great hungry Birds as would hatch from the Cuckoo’s eggs.
Another way in which the Mother Cuckoo shows her intelligence is her plan of breaking an egg in the nest in which hers is to be placed. If she finds one or more eggs in the nest, after she has placed hers in position she will take one of the others out, break it with her beak and scatter the shell, so that when the other Bird returns to her nest she will find the same number of eggs that she left. The Cuckoo has often been considered a very mean Bird, and a hard-hearted mother, because of this practice of imposing on other Birds, yet Naturalists excuse them by explaining that as the Cuckoo lays her eggs at considerable intervals she would find that she could not cover them and raise a family at the same time, for while some were hatching and the young Birds requiring constant attention, the other eggs would require her sitting upon them and keeping them warm for hatching later; so perhaps after all, the poor, misjudged Bird is simply following instinct without any thought of meanness.