hop. At times it was impatient of confinement, and evinced an anxiety to escape from its cage, but was
not at all afraid of any one it was accustomed to. Being let out into a room on the 17th, it endeavoured
to get through the glass of the window. About the middle of August it would peck at a caterpillar, and
seemed particularly partial to the larvee of the Buff-tipped Moth (2. bucephala), which it generally passed
through the bill, holding them by the extremities and shaking before eating them. In the third week of
September it became very restless in the early part of the night, and occasionally, when it was moonlight,
endeavoured to get through the window. On the 29th of October it was still restless, but continued to be
fed by hand. On several evenings about the middle of November, during candle-light, it would flap its
wings and fall or flutter off its perch, occasionally uttering ewe. It became much more contented about the
23rd of November, and the migratory instinct seemed to be succeeded by extreme voracity: its plumage
now much resembled that of the Woodcock. On the 28th, between nine and ten o'clock, it again became
restless. On the 3rd of December it was quite quiet. About the 25th of January, 1859, it began to moult,
and was still restless at times during the early part of the night, as it had been more or less ever since it
was able to fly. On the 7th of February it pecked at and ate some small pieces of meat and yelk of
egg. In the beginning of the second week of this month, some of the fibrous ends of the new feathers
were exposed. During candle-light of the evening of the 12th, it uttered a loud shrill noise resembling
the laughing-note of the Green Woodpecker ; by the middle of the month it became much less restless ;
some of the new feathers appeared on the back, and it generally fed itself by taking meat with ege, or meat
alone, from my hand or the bars of the cage, sometimes descending to the bottom to pick up pieces that
had fallen. By the end of the second week in March, much of the new plumage appeared on its back and
breast; but many old feathers still remained on the wing, at the back of the head, and on the upper part of
the breast. Black beetles (Blatte), to which it evinced a decided partiality, and meat with egg now
constituted its chief food. It was still restless at times, and on the 16th of April made a loud noise. On
the 28th I gave it a dead mouse, which it appeared to regard as an edible article, for it took it in its bill
and shook it several times. On my taking it to pieces, it ate some of the skin, fur, bones, and flesh. It
had not yet changed all its wing-feathers. On the 15th of May it called ‘Cuckoo.’ On the 28th of July
it was observed to drink for the first time. Unfortunately I did not record the date of my bird’s death ; but
it was alive on the 28th of July ; I therefore kept it for more than twelve months. It was tame with those
to whom it was accustomed, but became pugnacious when teased with the finger, and would occasionally
peck at it with raised wings and the utterance of a loud noise. It would sometimes plume its feathers, and
was fond of being placed in the sunshine, when it would droop its wings and appear to greatly enjoy the
heat. It was very capricious with regard to its food, sometimes eating much raw meat and many black
beetles, of which it would devour several in succession, while at others it would eat very little ; after eating,
it would often wipe its bill. If the top of its cage were uncovered, it would occasionally fly upwards and
cling to the band of osiers running across between the dome of the cage and the part whence it sprang, and
then fall to the bottom. It hada very curious habit of snapping its bill and shaking its head when I spoke
to it; but this was not invariably done. When a cat or any unusual object attracted its attention, it would
stretch out its neck, depress the tail-feathers, and anxiously watch the object. I never observed it cast up
any portion of what it had eaten, in the manner of Hawks and Owls, not even the fur of the mouse mentioned
above. For months it was never seen to drink, but was sometimes given water from the finger or stick ;
and the paste of egg and meat, or bread and egg, had usually water put with it. It was a male bird, and
had two white spots on the head before its first moult.”

The food of the Cuckoo consists of insects of various kinds, particularly in their larva or caterpillar state ;
for these it searches the lofty branches of the trees, over which it climbs and clings like a Parrot ; it also
descends to the grassy meads for moths, grasshoppers, and Coleoptera.

The sexes of the Cuckoo, when fully adult, are very similar; sometimes, however, the female is more or
less diversified with brown. The young bird, during the first autumn, resembles the Woodcock in its general
colouring ; but in some instances the ground-colour is white, as in the adult. When about three parts
fledged, it is a squat object, with a short stumpy tail, the feathers of which are about an inch in length, and
tipped with snow-white ; those of the head and body are dark blackish grey, with crescentic markings of
greyish white at the tips of the feathers; in some instances the breast and under surface are white, barred
with blackish grey, as in the adult ; there are no brown markings except on the scapularies ; the eye is deep-
sunken, and of a blackish-brown hue, with a narrow dark olive-coloured lash ; the bill and the round
swollen nostrils mealy olive; corners of the mouth narrowly edged with orange, inside of the mouth bright
fiery orange ; legs and toes delicate fleshy white.

Cuckoos are occasionally found in Europe in spring, still wearing the livery of the nestling. This has
caused several naturalists to fall into the error of supposing they were another species.

The Plate represents a male, drawn from life, of the natural size, and a young bird of the first autumn,
being fed by a Wagtail These latter figures are drawn from stuffed specimens, obligingly lent to me by
J, G, Barclay, Esq., and which were mounted in commemoration of the incident.