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CUCKOO

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 609 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CUCKOO , or Cucxow, as the word was formerly spelt, the See also:

common name of a well-known and often-heard See also:bird, the Cuculus canorus of See also:Linnaeus. In some parts of the See also:United See also:Kingdom it is more frequently called gowk, and it is the Gr. K6KKV;=, the Ital. cuculo or cucco, the Fr. coucou, the Ger. Kuckuk, the Dutch koekkoek, the See also:Dan. kukker or gjog, and the Swed. gok. The See also:oldest See also:English spelling of the name seems to have been cuccu. No single bird has perhaps so much occupied the attentionboth of naturalists and of those who are not naturalists, or has had so much written about it, as the common cuckoo, and of no bird perhaps have more idle tales been told. Its See also:strange and, according to the experience of most See also:people, its singular See also:habit of entrusting its offspring to See also:foster-parents is enough to See also:account for much of the See also:interest which has been so See also:long See also:felt in its See also:history; but this habit is shared probably by many of its Old See also:World relatives, as well as in the New World by birds which are not in any degree related to it. The cuckoo is a summer visitant to the whole of See also:Europe, reaching even far within the See also:Arctic circle, and See also:crossing the Mediterranean from its See also:winter quarters in See also:Africa at the end of See also:March or beginning of See also:April. Its arrival is at once proclaimed by the See also:peculiar and in nearly all See also:languages onomatopoeic cry of the cock—a true See also:song in the technical sense of the word, since it is confined to the male See also:sex and to the See also:season of love. In a few days the See also:cock is followed by the See also:hen, and amorous contests between keen and loud-voiced suitors are to be commonly noticed, until the respective pretensions of the rivals are decided. Even by See also:night they are not silent; but as the season advances the song is less frequently heard, and the cuckoo seems rather to avoid observation as much as possible, the more so since whenever it shows itself it is• a See also:signal for all the small birds of the neighbourhood to be up in its pursuit, just as though it were a See also:hawk, to which indeed its mode of See also:flight and See also:general See also:appearance give it an undoubted resemblance—a resemblance that misleads some into confounding it with the birds of See also:prey, instead of recognizing it as a harmless if not a beneficial destroyer of hairy caterpillars. Thus pass away some See also:weeks.

Towards the See also:

middle or end of See also:June its " See also:plain-song " cry alters; it becomes rather hoarser in See also:tone, and its first syllable or See also:note is doubled. Soon after it is no longer heard at all, and by the middle of See also:July an old cuckoo is seldom to be found in the See also:British Islands, though a stray example, or even, but very rarely, two or three in See also:company, may occasionally be seen for a See also:month longer. Of its breeding comparatively few have any See also:personal experience. Yet a diligent See also:search for and peering into the nests of several of the commonest little birds—more especially the pied See also:wagtail(Motacilla lugubris),the titlark(Anthus pratensis), the See also:reed-See also:wren (Acrocephalus streperus), and the hedge-See also:sparrow (Accentor modularis)—will be rewarded by the See also:discovery of the See also:egg of the mysterious stranger which has been surreptitiously introduced, and those who wait till this egg is hatched may be witnesses (as was See also:Edward _Termer in the 18th See also:century) of the murderous eviction of the rightful tenants of the See also:nest by the intruder, who, hoisting them one after another on his broad back, heaves them over to See also:die neglected by their own parents, of whose solicitous care he thus becomes the only See also:object. In this manner he thrives, and, so long as he remains in the See also:country of his See also:birth his wants are anxiously supplied by the victims of his See also:mother's dupery. The actions of his foster-parents become, when he is full grown, almost ludicrous, for they often have to See also:perch between his shoulders to See also:place in his gaping mouth the delicate morsels he is too indolent or too stupid to take from their bills. See also:Early in See also:September he begins to shift for himself, and then follows the seniors of his See also:kin to more See also:southern climes. So much caution is used by the hen cuckoo in choosing a nest in which to See also:deposit her egg that the See also:act of insertion has been but seldom witnessed. The nest selected is moreover often so situated, or so built, that it would be an See also:absolute impossibility for a bird of her See also:size to See also:lay her egg therein by sitting upon the' fabric as birds commonly do; and there have been a few fortunate observers who have actually seen the deposition of the egg upon the ground by the cuckoo, who, then taking it in her See also:bill, introduces it into the nest. Of these; the earliest in See also:Great See also:Britain seem to have been two Scottish lads, sons of Mr Tripeny, a See also:farmer in Coxmuir, who, as recorded by See also:Macgillivray (Brit. Birds, iii. 130, 131) from See also:information communicated to him by Mr See also:Durham See also:Weir, saw most See also:part of the operation performed, June 24, 1838.

But perhaps the most satisfactory See also:

evidence on the point is that of Adolf See also:Muller, a forester at Gladenbach in See also:Darmstadt, who says (Zoolog. Garten,1866, pp. 374, 375) that through a See also:telescope he watched a cuckoo as she laid her egg on a See also:bank, and then conveyed the egg in her bill to a wagtail's nest. Cuckoos, too, have been not unfrequently shot as they were carrying a cuckoo's egg, presumably their own, in their bill, and this has probably given rise to the vulgar, but seemingly groundless, belief that they suck the eggs of other kinds of birds. More than this, Mr G. D. See also:Rowley, who had much experience of cuckoos, declares (See also:Ibis, 1865, p. 186) his See also:opinion to be that traces of violence and of a scuffle between the intruder and the owners of the nest at the See also:time of introducing the egg often appear, whence we are led to suppose that the cuckoo ordinarily, when inserting her egg, excites the fury (already stimulated by her hawk-like appearance) of the owners of the nest by turning out one or more of the eggs that may be already laid therein, and thus induces the dupe to brood all the more readily and more strongly what is See also:left to her. Of the assertion that the cuckoo herself takes any interest in the future welfare of the egg she has foisted on her victim, or of its product, there is no See also:good evidence. But a much more curious assertion has also been made, and one that at first sight appears so incomprehensible as to cause little surprise at the neglect it long encountered. To this currency was first given by Salerne (L'Hist. nat. &c., See also:Paris, 1767, p.

42), who was, however, hardly a believer in it, and it is to the effect, as he was told by an inhabitant of See also:

Sologne, that the egg of a cuckoo resembles in See also:colour that of the eggs normally laid by the See also:kind of bird in whose nest it is placed. In 1853 the same notion was prominently and independently brought forward by Dr A. C. E. Baldamus (Naumannia, 1853, pp. 307-325), and in time became known to English ornithologists, most of whom were naturally sceptical as to its truth, since no likeness whatever is ordinarily apparent in the very See also:familiar See also:case of the See also:blue-See also:green egg of the hedge-sparrow and that of the cuckoo, which is so often found beside it.' Dr Baldamus based his notion on a See also:series of eggs in his See also:cabinet,2 a selection from which he figured in See also:illustration of his See also:paper, and, however the thing may be accounted for, it seems impossible to resist, See also:save on one supposition, the force of the testimony these specimens afford. This one supposition is that the eggs have been wrongly ascribed to the cuckoo, and that they are only exceptionally large examples of the eggs of the birds in the nests of which they were found, for it cannot be gainsaid that some such abnormal examples are occasionally to be met with. But it is well known that abnormally large eggs are not only often deficient in See also:depth of colour, but still more often in stoutness of See also:shell. Applying these rough criteria to Dr Baldamus's series, most of the specimens stood the test very well. There are some other considerations to be urged. For instance, Herr Braune, a forester at See also:Greiz in the principality of See also:Reuss (Naumannia, tom. cit. pp. 307, 313), shot a hen cuckoo as she was leaving the nest of an icterine See also:warbler (Hypolais icterina).

In the oviduct of this cuckoo he found an egg coloured very like that of the warbler, and on looking into the nest he found there an exactly similar egg, which there can be no reasonable doubt had just been laid by that very cuckoo. Moreover, Herr Grunack (Journ. far Orn., 1873, p. 454) afterwards found one of the most abnormally coloured specimens, quite unlike the See also:

ordinary egg of the cuckoo, to contain an embryo so fully formed as to show the characteristic zygodactyl feet of the bird, thus proving unquestionably its parentage. On the other See also:hand, we must See also:bear in mind the numerous instances in which not the least similarity can be traced—as in the not uncommon case of the hedge-sparrow already mentioned, and if we See also:attempt any explanatory See also:hypothesis it must be one that will See also:fit all See also:round. Such an explanation seems to be this. We know that certain kinds of birds resent interference with their nests much less than others, and among them it may be asserted that the hedge-sparrow will patiently submit to various experiments. She will brood with complacency the egg of a See also:redbreast (Erithacus rubecula), so unlike her own, and for aught we know to the contrary may even be colour-See also:blind. In the case ' An instance to the contrary has been recorded by Mr A. C. See also:Smith (Zoologist, 1873, p. 3516) on Mr Brine's authority. 2 This series was seen in 1861 by the writer.

End of Article: CUCKOO

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