On oe other hand, if the young should surviy
| doubt it would, as Dr. Jenner

. the ejectment ;

e until the Cuckoo has gained
and others have asserted, hav
but I do not believe it has this pow
day that I have always found the Cuckoo the sole
a pair

sufficient strength, I have no
e both the disposition and the power to effect
er on the third day after being hatched ; yet it is on that

occupier of the nest. The Rev. C. A. Johns states that |

0 throw out their own young ones to make room for |
IS so rapid after the destruction of his comp
soon fills the nest.

and most industriously do they
end of a week or ten days, his size

time his small, dull

of Meadow-Pipits were positively seen t
the intruder. The growth of the usurper

the entire supply of food to himself, that he
by whom he was incubated F

 

anions has secured
He has now the entire attention of the birds
work to keep him in health and condition. At the

and appearance is very similar to that of a moderate-sized toad; at this |
» unmeaning eye enables him to discern the approach of an

manifests his displeasure by swelling out bis body and opening his wide mouth.
their appearance, and by the eighteenth d

seldom leaves it until his pinions

part of a tree, where he sits fr

intruder, against whom he

After this, his feathers make |
ay he has the power of hopping in and out of the nest ; but he |
are sufficiently developed to enable him to fly
om day to day, receiving contribution
birds also: here again its power of fascination is
taken from the nest, and w

to a branch in some obscure |
s from his fosterparents and from other |

brought into play. “A young Cuckoo which had been

as being reared by hand, escaped from confinement. Having one of its wings
cut, it could not fly, but was found again, at the expiration of a month, within

where it was reared, and several little wild birds were in
his ‘ Familiar History of Birds,’ mentions two inst
young Thrush which had only just lear

A. Johns.)

How wonderfully solicitous are the little birds for its we
defend their nurtured Cuckoo !

a few fields of the house ny
the act of feeding it. The Bishop of Norwich, in
ances in which a young Cuckoo in captivity was fed by a HI
ned to feed itself.” («British Birds in their Haunts,’ by the Rev. C.

Ifare, and with what spirit do the fosterparents
If its removal be attempted, they display the greatest une
will even fly in the face of the person who thus teases them and if it be retur
their joy by fondling and dancing ar

Will
asmess. Wagtails |i]
ned to them, they will evince

ound it, leaping over its back, and exhibiting many other demonstrations |
of delight. Yet in a few days their charge will wing his way to the leafy bre

anch of some tree in the forest, |
and there sit uttering most strange, piercing, bat-like notes, varied occasionally by others resembling the
syllables chat-chat.

As some of my readers may consider that I have not sufficiently stated whence

e the Cuckoo comes in spring,
and whither it goes in autumn,

I may state that those individuals which frequent Britain in summer, spend
their winters in the western portion of Africa, and that they follow the little spring birds in their migrations I

to and from that country. The British Islands, however, are by no means the only parts in which the
Cuckoo spends its summer and performs its peculiar functions ; the whole of Europe, from south to north,
is alike visited by it, and even within the Arctic circle its call serenades the ear. It is also equally abun- wn
dant in every part of Asia, visiting the temperate and northern portions in summer, and retiring southwards i] | |
at the opposite season; and thus India, Southern China, Persia, Arabia, and Egypt are countries of | ||
whose fauna it forms a part. The Cuckoos have always appeared to me to constitute a part of a large Hl i]
but not yet clearly defined group of birds, in which the Woodpeckers and Wrynecks must be included : these, HI
as well as the Cuckoos, are very reptile-like in many of their actions and economy. Their brilliantly i

coloured eyes, the darting action of their lengthened tongues, their mode of progression on the boles of the

 

|)
trees, the peculiar colour of their plumage, particularly of the Wrynecks ae Woodpeckers, their extra- | |
ordinary snake-like contortions, and other indescribable actions, all point HO Uncen: similarity. 11]
A young Cuckoo, taken from the nest of a Wagtail at Formosa, entitled! menyy strange oe which | ||
very strongly reminded me of a Rattlesnake. If the hand was put Ce it, it raised ee its legs, Hil |
protruded its neck, puffed out its feathers, and threw its head Homvendl salt a quick and determined stroke,
precisely like a Snake or Viper, struck the hand with the open mouth just as a Snake would do, and |
immediately drew the head back in readiness for another stroke. On the ee day after it was taken,
the bird was sufficiently reconciled to me and my daughter to take small pieces of raw beef and mutton aN
and caterpillars from the hand, but continued to utter its piercing shriek oder we approached it. a | |
not this peculiar electrifying shriek attract the attention of the smaller ae when it requires food : | |
delicate ear will hear this sound at the distance of thirty or forty yoras), and it is proba bay heard by the smaller I |
birds at a still greater distance. On the 14th of June I gave ne bird ee Nobles of Berry ae He HHI
attended to it with the utmost care, and succeeded in rearing it until it could ao i ene a |
period of migration arrived, when the impulse to depart became o strong, a it st ed ae y flying
against the top of its cage, in one of those paroxysms which oo with all migt onal sees a y |
I am indebted to John Gatcombe, Ksq.; for the following interesting Bee O aS ° i : young |
Cuckoo, drawn up by Thomas Archer Briggs, Esq., of Plymouth, who succeeded in keeping it alive for more |

 

n it we Cl killed :—
than twelve months, when it was accidentally ae
« On the 26th of June, 1858, I obtained a young Cuckoo from a labourer. From the first it was fierce

and pugnacious. It was fed principally upon raw and dressed meat, and a oe composed of the a of |
eg acd SO iked bread; and about the beginning of the second week in July it was able both to fly and to
a c ?