The CUCKOOS (Cuculus) are characterised by a slightly-curved, thin beak, which is broad at its base, and almost equals the head in length; the long wings, in which the third quill is longer than the rest, are narrow and pointed; the long tail, composed of ten feathers, is either wedge-shaped or rounded at its extremity. The short or moderate-sized feet have the toes placed in pairs; the thick plumage is very similarly coloured in the two sexes, but the young differ considerably in appearance from the adult birds.
The members of this family are spread over the whole of the Eastern Hemisphere and New Holland, being particularly numerous in Africa and India, while the more northern portions possess but one species. All, without exception, are inhabitants of the woods, and rarely leave the shelter of their favourite trees, except during the period of migration, or when, as with the more southern species, they are wandering for a short season over the face of the country. In disposition they are timorous, restless, and extremely averse to associate with other birds, indeed, they frequently avoid the society of their own congeners. Their life may be described as an incessant and noisy search for food, in pursuit of which they hurry rapidly from tree to tree and place to place. Insects and larvæ afford them their principal means of subsistence, and hairy caterpillars (avoided by most other birds) are with them favourite tid-bits—the hairs from the bodies of these caterpillars adhere to the coats of the Cuckoo's stomach, and become, as it were, embedded by the process of digestion. Many also consume small reptiles. Some species prepare suitable receptacles for their young; but the greater number deposit their eggs in the nests of other birds.
THE COMMON CUCKOO.
The COMMON CUCKOO (Cuculus canorus) represents a group possessing a slender body, a small, weak, slightly-curved beak, long, pointed wings, a long, rounded tail, short, partially-feathered feet, and plumage of a sombre hue. The male is deep ash-grey, or greyish blue, on the mantle, and greyish white, marked with black, on the under side; the neck, cheeks, throat, and the sides of the neck, as far down as the breast, are pure ash-grey; the quills of the wings leaden black, and those of the tail black, spotted with white. The eye is of a bright yellow; the beak black, but yellowish towards its base; and the foot yellow. The female resembles the male, but has scarcely perceptible reddish stripes on the back and under side of the neck. The length of the male is fourteen inches; breadth twenty-four and a half; length of wing, nine inches; length of tail, seven and three-quarter inches. The female is about an inch shorter.
This Cuckoo frequents almost every part of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and breeds in all northern portions of the Eastern Hemisphere; it only visits India, China, Java, the Sundainu Islands, and South-western Africa in the course of its migrations. In England it usually appears about the middle of April.
The Common Cuckoo may be regarded as the most flighty, restless, and lively member of this sprightly family; from morning till night he is constantly on the move, and is as hungry as he is active and clamorous. His flight is light, elegant, somewhat resembling that of a Falcon; but no sooner has his journey come to an end, than he alights on a thick branch of the nearest tree, and at once begins to look about him in search of food. Should an attractive morsel be in sight, he swoops upon it in an instant, and having caught and devoured it, by a stroke or two of his powerful wings he again returns to the branch he has just quitted, or else flies off to a neighbouring tree, immediately to repeat the same performance. It is, however, only in his powers of flight that the Cuckoo is eminently gifted; he walks upon the ground with difficulty, and is quite unable to climb. In spring-time he is indefatigable in making heard his well-known notes, "Cuckoo, cuckoo," which occasionally he will change to a softly-uttered "Quawawa," or "Haghaghaghag," while the voice of the female somewhat resembles a peculiar laugh or gentle twitter, but poorly represented by the syllables "Kwikwikwik." It was well-known, even to ancient writers, that the female Cuckoo, instead of building a nest for the reception of her progeny, lays her eggs in the nests of other birds, to whom she altogether entrusts the rearing of her young ones.
"The Cuckoo," says Aristotle, "deputes the incubation of her eggs and the nurture of the young ones to which they give birth to the bird in whose nest the eggs happen to be laid. The foster-father, as we are told, throws his own offspring out of their nest and leaves them to die of hunger, while he devotes himself entirely to providing for the young Cuckoo. Others say that he kills his own nestlings to feed the young intruder with their bodies, the young Cuckoo being so beautiful that even the mother who owns the nest despises and sacrifices her own brood on his behalf. Narrators, however, are not quite agreed as to who is the real destroyer of the young birds; some say that it is the old Cuckoo who comes back again to eat the little family of the too hospitable pair, while others assert that it is the young Cuckoo who casts out of the nest all his foster brothers and sisters, leaving them to die of starvation, while others again declare that the young Cuckoo, being the strongest, kills and devours all the rest."
"In thus providing for his children," continues Aristotle, "the Cuckoo does quite right, for he knows what a coward he is, and that he would never be able to defend them; indeed, so cowardly is he that all the little birds amuse themselves by pinching and pecking at him."