Identifier: cu31924001243561 (find matches)
Title: Birds in their haunts, by the late C. A. Johns
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Johns, C. A. (Charles Alexander), 1811-1874 Visger, Jean Allan (Pinder) Owen, 1841-
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: London, G. Routledge New York, E. P. Dutton

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,some of which are entertained by the credulous or ill-informed atthe present day, I wiU proceed to sketch in outline the biographyof this singular bird, as the facts are now pretty generally admitted.The Cuckoo arrives in this country about the middle of April ;the time of its coming to different countries is adapted to the time ofthe foster-parents breeding. During the whole of its stay it leads awandering life, building no nest, and attaching itself to no particularlocality. It shows no hostility towards birds of another kind, andlittle affection for those of its own. If two males meet in the courseof their wandering they frequently fight with intense animosity. Iwas once witness of an encounter between two birds who chancedto meet in mid-air. Without alighting they attacked each otherwith fury, pecking at each other and changing places just as onesees two barn-door cocks fight for the supremacy of the dunghill.Feathers flew in profusion, and in their passion the angry birds heeded
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-■i^.-a - CrOSStsilli imm. ? S White Winged Crossbill $ 2 Cuckoo S (face I). 18S. THE CUCKOO 139 my presence so little that they came almost within arms length ofme. These single combats account for the belief formerly enter-tained that the Cuckoo was the only sort of Hawk that preyed onits own kind. The female does not pair or keep to one mate. It is,however, frequently accompanied by a small bird of another kind,said to be a Meadow Pipit. The Cuckoo hunts for its food both in trees and on the ground.On its first arrival it lives principally on beetles, but when cater-pillars become abundant it prefers them, especially the hairy sorts.In the months of May and June, the female Cuckoo lays her eggs(the number of which is variously estimated from five to twelve),choosing a separate locality for each, and that invariably the nestof some other bird. The nests in which the egg of a Cuckoo hasbeen found in this country are those of the Hedge Sparrow, Robin,Redstart, Whitethroat, WiUow War

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