“Hail, beauteous stranger of the wood,
Attendant on the spring!
Now Heaven repairs thy rural seat,
And woods thy welcome sing.
“Soon as the daisy decks the green,
Thy certain voice we hear;
Hast thou a star to guide thy path,
Or mark the rolling year?
“Delightful visitant! with thee
I hail the time of flowers,
When heav’n is fill’d with music sweet,
Of birds among the bowers.”
Logan.
The well-known notes of this bird, in spite of their monotony, are heard with pleasure in spring, as a sure prognostic of fine weather. The Cuckoo is generally first heard about the middle of April, and ceases towards the end of June. This bird is so shy that he is seldom seen when uttering his singular note. The female does not build a nest, but lays her eggs in that of some other bird.
The Cuckoo is somewhat less than the magpie, his length being about twelve inches from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail. He is remarkable for his round prominent nostrils; the lower part of the body is of a yellowish colour, with black transverse lines on the throat and across the breast; the head and upper part of the body and wings are beautifully marked with black and tawny stripes, and on the top of the head there are a few white spots. The tail is long, and on the exterior part, or edges of the feathers, there are several white marks; the ground colour of the body is a sort of grey. The legs are short, and covered with feathers, and the feet are composed of four toes, two before and two behind.
We are indebted to the observations of Dr. Jenner for the following account of the habits and economy of this singular bird in the disposal of its eggs. He states that, during the time the hedge-sparrow is laying her eggs, which generally occupies four or five days, the Cuckoo contrives to deposit her egg among the rest, leaving the future care of it entirely to the hedge-sparrow. This intrusion often occasions some disorder; for the old hedge-sparrow, at intervals while she is sitting, not only throws out some of her own eggs but sometimes injures them in such a way that they become addled, so that it frequently happens that not more than two or three of the parent bird’s eggs are hatched: but, what is very remarkable, it has never been observed that she has either thrown out or injured the egg of the Cuckoo. When the hedge-sparrow has set her usual time, and has disengaged the young Cuckoo and some of her own offspring from the shell, her own young ones and any of her eggs that remain unhatched are soon turned out: the young Cuckoo then remains in full possession of the nest, and is the sole object of the future care of the foster parent. The young birds are not previously killed, nor are the eggs demolished; but they are left to perish together, either entangled in the bush that contains the nest, or lying on the ground beneath it. On the 18th June, 1787, Dr. Jenner examined a nest of a hedge-sparrow, which then contained a Cuckoo’s and three hedge-sparrow’s eggs. On inspecting it the day following, the bird had hatched: but the nest then contained only a young Cuckoo and one hedge-sparrow. The nest was placed so near the extremity of a hedge, that he could distinctly see what was going forward in it; and, to his great astonishment, he saw the young Cuckoo, though so lately hatched, in the act of turning out the young hedge-sparrow. The mode of accomplishing this was curious; the little animal, with the assistance of its rump and wings, contrived to get the bird upon its back, and making a lodgment for its burden by elevating its elbows, climbed backward with it up the side of the nest, till it reached the top; where, resting for a moment, it threw off its load with a jerk, and quite disengaged it from the nest. After remaining a short time in this situation, and feeling about with the extremities of its wings, as if to be convinced that the business was properly executed, it dropped into the nest again. Dr. Jenner made several experiments in different nests, by repeatedly putting in an egg to the young Cuckoo, which he always found to be disposed of in the same manner. It is very remarkable that nature seems to have provided for the singular disposition of the Cuckoo in its formation at this period; for, different from other newly-hatched birds, its back, from the scapulae downward, is very broad, with a considerable depression in the middle, which seems intended for the express purpose of giving a more secure lodgment to the egg of the hedge-sparrow or its young one, while the young Cuckoo is employed in removing either of them from the nest. When it is about twelve days old, this cavity is quite filled up, the back assumes the shape of that of nestling birds in general, and at that time the disposition of turning out its companion entirely ceases. The smallness of the Cuckoo’s egg, which in general is less than that of the hedge-sparrow, is another circumstance to be attended to in this surprising transaction, and seems to account for the parent Cuckoo’s depositing it in the nest of such small birds only as these. If she were to do this in the nest of a bird that produced a larger egg, and consequently a larger nestling, the design would probably be frustrated, the young Cuckoo would be unequal to the task of becoming sole possessor of the nest, and might fall a sacrifice to the superior strength of its partners. Dr. Jenner observes, that the egg of two Cuckoos are sometimes deposited in the same nest; and gives the following instance which fell under his observation. Two Cuckoos and a hedge-sparrow were hatched in the same nest; one hedge-sparrow’s egg remained unhatched. In a few hours a contest began between the Cuckoos for possession of the nest; and this continued undetermined till the afternoon of the following day, when the one which was somewhat superior in size, turned out the other, together with the young hedge-sparrow and the unhatched egg. The contest, he adds, was very remarkable; the combatants alternately appeared to have the advantage, as each carried the other several times nearly to the top of the nest, and again sank down oppressed by the weight of its burden; till at length, after various efforts, the strongest of the two prevailed, and was afterwards brought up by the hedge-sparrow.
The American Cuckoo, or Cow bird, is quite different in its habits to the European Cuckoo, as it builds a nest for its eggs, and hatches its young itself like other birds.
