Cuculus canorus, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 168.
hepaticus, Sparrm. (in immature plumage).
——— borealis, Pallas, Zoogr. Ross.-Asiat., i. p. 442.

I know of no circumstance that raises such Joyous emotions, that has given rise to so much speculation, or

is coupled with so many pleasing associations as the arrival of the Cuckoo. The Nightingale has doubtless
many charms by which to recommend itself to our notice, and has justly many admirers; but it is known
comparatively to few persons, the countries and the situations it affects being very circumscribed. On the
other hand, this herald of summer (for so the Cuckoo may justly be designated) is so widely spread, that
there is no portion of our country but resounds with its well-known cry; from the Land’s End to the
outermost Hebrides, from the beautiful woods of Kallarney to the Giant’s Causeway, its glidmg flight may
be observed. The ancient Briton, the Gaul, and the Celt probably included it among their superstitions,
a remnant of which, in connexion with this bird, exists among country-people to this day. The nurse
and the child both stop to listen to its voice; the boy mockingly cries “ Cuckoo!” as he wends
his way to the village school; the southern squire and his ploughman, the Scotch laird and his gillie,
alike greet it on its arrival; the Lapp turns out of his hut, and the nomad Kirghis from his tent,
at the sound of its welcome note. Not being choice as to locality, the Cuckoo, immediately after
arriving in April, disperses so generally, that the marsh and the mountain, the woodland district and
the heathery waste, the green lane and the village garden, all seem suited to its habits and mode of
life. What are these habits? I feel that Iam now entering into a part of the bird’s economy which
distinguishes it from all others, that is fraught with the highest imterest, and which is still involved
in the greatest mystery. It has been the theme of the naturalist, from the days of Aristotle to the
present time; still, after the lapse of so many centuries, and notwithstanding the close attention which
has been paid to the habits and economy of the bird, many points connected therewith remain as obscure
as ever. To say that the Cuckoo is a parasite, and that it confides its eggs to the care of various
little birds who hatch them and bring up its young, would be merely a repetition of what is universally
> known, while the why and the wherefore, and the mode by which the eggs are deposited, we can none of
us understand ; nor are we any wiser with regard to the instinctive power which enables it to find the nests
best suited to its purpose, or the fascination which it exerts over the whole of the smaller kinds of birds.
All these features in the habits of the Cuckoo have occasioned me much thought and patient research,
without my arriving at any satisfactory conclusions. ‘To give a the details that have been published on the
subject, from Gilbert White to the last number of the ‘ Zoologist,’ would occupy too large a spaces I shall
therefore content myself with giving my own observations, and a few extracts from the writings of others
which may seem to be of the greatest interest. qu

If we exclude from the European list of birds that accidental visitor the Oxylophus glandarius, our fauna
will be adorned with but a single species of a very extensive family, comprising many diversified forms, and
distributed over almost every part of the Old and New World, including the islands. Nearly all the various
forms of the Cuculide of the Old World, from the huge Australian Sayihnops to the diminutive Chaleites,
y depend upon other birds for the fostering of Dien young. The Scythrops is said
of the Piping Crow (Gymnorhina tibicen), and I have known many
deposited in the dome-shaped nests of the Malurt. Our well-known
se of the Wagtail, the Titlark, the Black-headed Bunting, and the
ll as the stationary, the hard- as well as the soft-billed species are

are parasitic, and entirel
sometimes to lay its egg in the nest
instances of the eggs of Chalcites being
European bird evinces a preference for tho

Reed-Wren ; and thus the migratory as we eek
alike called upon to take their part in nurturing the offspring of another bird. Nor do either fail to answer

to the demand made upon them—a demand which seems the more unnatural, since it leads to the destruction
% *
of their own young. a ;
The infl Be exercised by the Cuckoo over the smaller birds is one of the most inexplicable things
he influence len m | 7
i ture. No sooner does it arrive on our shores, than it is followed by a string of Swallows and other
in nature. _ round ue
ll birds ; and when it alights or descends to the ground, these little followers settle in close proximity,
small birds ; y ‘

i i é e ame inquisitive
and do not rise until the Cuckoo again takes wing. In heathy and open moorlands the 2 e 4 ne
‘ me .

: ing the willowy aits of our beautifu
the Titlarks, the Buntings, and the Linnets. On y ee),
“Wren which are raised to consequence by being selected to
d and mysterious a creature as-a youug Cuckoo ;

Mr. Smitber, of Churt in Surrey, informs me

attention is carried on by
Thames, it is the Sedge-Warbler and the Reed
fice of fosterparent to so gran

Wagtail, the Robin, and the Wren.

perform the important 0
in the gardens it is the