are pale; the feathers of the whole under part are sullied white, with distant transverse bars of dusky black; in general each feather possesses two or three bars; the sides of the neck and breast tinged with rufous; the lateral feathers of the tail and the inner webs of the quills more or less barred with white; the coverts of the tail, which, as well as those on the rump, are usually long, dashed with cinereous, and slightly tipped with white *"

Young Cuckoo,' from Vaillant's figure.

The young cuckoo, on account of the reddishbrown plumage just described, has, by some distin

*Supplement to Ornith. Dict. art. Cuckoo.

guished naturalists, been ranked as a separate species, under the name of the red cuckoo (Cuculus rufus, BRISSON, Cuculus Hepaticus, LATH. Index.) There can be no doubt, however, from recent investigations, that this supposed red or hepatic cuckoo is not distinct from the common species. M. Payrandeau states distinctly, on the authority of a series of specimens, as well as of repeated dissection, that both the male and female young of the common cuckoo, before the first moult, have the same colour; that, after the first moult, the males have a deep olive-ash colour, and the red spots on the male disappear altogether, while, in the female, they continue to the most advanced age, when it puts on the plumage of an old male, of which change M. Payrandeau possesses a specimen *. Vieillot, the father of the French ornithologists, as well as Meyer, Jules Delamothe, and Baillon of Abbeville, agree in the same opinion. M. Temminck and Dr. Latham, in his last work, regard the red cuckoo as the young of the common species of one year old.

The variety of the colouring in the cuckoo has likewise more than once caused it to be mistaken for several other birds, such as different kinds of hawks, for the wood-pigeon †, and for a merlin (Falco Esalon, TEMMINCK), so that Mr. Masters is by no means alone in the affair. A passage in White's Selborne furnishes a circumstance exactly parallel.

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A countryman told me," says White, "he had found a young fern-owl (Caprimulgus Europaus) in the nest of a small bird on the ground, and that it was fed by the little bird. I went to see this extraordinary phenomenon, and found that it was a

*Bulletin des Sciences Nat. for 1828.

†M. Herissant in Mém. de l'Acad. des Sciences pour 1752, p. 417.

Salerne, Hist. des Oiseaux, p. 40.

highest top of the mountain Lamalmon, while my servants were refreshing themselves from that toilsome rugged ascent, and enjoying the pleasure of a most delightful climate, eating their dinner in the outer air, with several large dishes of boiled goats' flesh before them, this enemy, as he turned out to be to them, suddenly appeared: he did not stoop rapidly from a height, but came flying slowly along the ground, and sat down close to the meat within the ring the men had made round it. A great shout or rather cry of distress called me to the place. I saw the eagle stand for a minute, as if to recollect himself; while the servants ran for their lances and shields. I walked up as nearly to him as I had time to do. His attention was fixed upon the flesh. I saw him put his foot into the pan, where there was a large piece, in water, prepared for boiling; but feeling the smart, which he had not expected, he withdrew it, and forsook the piece which he held. There were two large pieces, a leg and a shoulder, lying upon a wooden platter: into these he thrust both his claws and carried them off; but I thought he still looked wistfully at the large piece, which remained in the warm water. Away he went slowly along the ground as he had come. The face of the cliff over which criminals are thrown took him from our sight. The Mahometans that drove the asses were much alarmed, and assured me of his return. My servants, on the other hand, very unwillingly expected him, and thought he had already taken more than his share. As I had myself a desire of more intimate acquaintance with this bird, I loaded a rifle gun with ball, and sat down close to the platter by the meat. It was not many minutes before he came, and a prodigious shout was raised by my attendants,' He is coming! he is coming!' enough to have dismayed a less courageous animal. Whether he was not quite

so hungry as at his first visit, or suspected something from my appearance, I know not; but he made a short turn, and sat down about ten yards from me, the pan of meat being between me and him. As the field was clear before me, and I did not know but his next move might bring him opposite to some of my people, so that he might actually get the rest of the meat and make off, I shot him with the ball through the middle of his body, about two inches below the wing, so that he lay down upon the grass without a single flutter." It is worthy of remark that Bruce adds, the feathers of the belly and breast were of a gold colour*," which might almost

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nor opened its eyes more than half, and I left it as I found it. After I had walked about a quarter of a mile from the spot, recollecting that I had left a pencil behind, I returned and found my pencil, but the young bird was gone *:

nine inches.

To many it may appear altogether an unproved fancy that the cuckoo or any other bird lays its eggs in the nest of one of a different species, and has them hatched and the young nursed by a strange fostermother; but the fact has been ascertained beyond all possible doubt. "I myself," says Willughby, "with many others, have seen a wag-tail (Motacilla alba) feeding a young cuckoo. The cuckoo herself builds no nest; but, having found the nest of some little bird, she either devours or destroys the eggs *Wilson, Amer. Ornith. v. 74.