On the habits and instincts of animals / By William Swainson.

  • William Swainson
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the habits and instincts of animals / By William Swainson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    wings, as a buckler, struck her enemy with the horny protuberances upon the other, which, like little clubs, served the more effectually to knock him down as he raised himself to the blow: at last he staggered and fell: the conqueror then despatched him, and with one stroke of her bill laid open his skull.” * (22.) The instinct of the nestling cuckoo is not more remarkable than that of the parent. The Euro- pean species (fig. 4.), as is well observed by White of Selborne, does not lay its eges in other birds’ nests in- discriminately, but, by a won- derful instinct, selects only those of soft-billed insecti- vorous birds, — such as the wagtails, hedge-sparrow, tit- lark, whitethroat, and red- breast, — to whom it can intrust the proper feeding of its progeny. The North American cuckoos, however, being of a different species, more frequently lay their eggs in the nests of the cowpen birds (Molothrus pe- coris Sw.), whose bills, from being larger and thicker than those of a sparrow, might lead to the belief that they fed their young upon that grain which the old birds are known to be fond of. It seems, however, that although this species, in their adult state, are grani- vorous, yet that they are also insectivorous, and feed their young with this latter aliment rather than with the former. Hence it is that the young cuckoo is still nourished with insects until it can fly, when it quits the nest and shifts for itself. (23.) QuapRupeps claim our next attention. It is in this class, more than in any other, we find that kind of superior instinct formerly alluded to, which makes — them not only the companion, but the friend, of man. * Le Vaillant’s Second Travels, vol. ii. p. 247. ee
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