. A dictionary of birds . o the localitythey inhabit (see Song) must make it a slender specific these forms are believed to have essentially the same habits asour Cuckow, and, as regards parasitism, the same is to be said ofthe large Cuckow of Southern Europe and North Africa, Cocci/stesglandarius, which victimizes Pies (Pica mauritanica and Cyanopicacooki) and Crows (Corvus comix). True it is that an instance of thisspecies, commonly knoAvn as the Great Spotted Cuckow, havingbuilt a nest and hatched its young is on record, but this is a mani-fest error (c/. Salvadori, Uccelli c
. A dictionary of birds . o the localitythey inhabit (see Song) must make it a slender specific these forms are believed to have essentially the same habits asour Cuckow, and, as regards parasitism, the same is to be said ofthe large Cuckow of Southern Europe and North Africa, Cocci/stesglandarius, which victimizes Pies (Pica mauritanica and Cyanopicacooki) and Crows (Corvus comix). True it is that an instance of thisspecies, commonly knoAvn as the Great Spotted Cuckow, havingbuilt a nest and hatched its young is on record, but this is a mani-fest error (c/. Salvadori, Uccelli cVItalia, pi. 42); the later observa-tions of Dr. A. E. Brehm, Canon Tristram, Stafford Allen, andothers leave no doubt on the subject. It is worthy of remark thatthe eggs of this bird so closely resemble those of one of the Pies inwhose nest they have been found, that even expert oologists havebeen deceived l)y them, only to discover the truth when theCuckows embryo had been extracted from the supposed Pies egg. I CUCKO W. a, CucuLus ; 6, Oxylophus ; c, Chalcites ; d, e, Zanclostoma,/, PiAYA; g, CenteopLS. (After Swainson.) This species of CuckoAv, easily distinguishable by its large size, long crest, and the primrose tinge of its throat, has more than once made its apjDear- ance as a straggler in the British Isles. Equally parasitic are many other Cuckows, belong-ing chiefly to genera which have been more or less clearly defined as Cacomantis, Chryso- coccyx, Eticlynamis, Oxylophus, Fhcenicophaes, Polyphasia, Surniculus, and Zandostoma, and inhabit]ii;.: Y,\.v\- i>f the Ethiopian, Indian, and Australian Regions;^ but there are certain aberrant forms ofOld-World Cuckows which unques-tionably do not shirk parental responsi-bilities. Among these especially arethe birds placed in or allied to thegenera Centropus (Coucal) and Coua—the latter bearing no English name,and limited to the island of build a nest, not perhaps in ahighly-finished style of architecture
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Keywords: ., bookauthorlyde, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds
