ABSTRACT
IN northern forests there also lives the herald of anticipated gladness, a bird known to everyone, the cuckoo, whose ringing tones break out near the beginning of May and continue till approximately the end of July. But it sings in woods that are desolate, on account of hostile birds which through their natural hatred will harass it in every way, since the cuckoo itself (known in Greek as coccyx) is treacherous to other species. It does not build its own nest, you see, but lays its eggs to be incubated in those of different birds, including the wood-pigeon, lark, and hedge-sparrow, and its young are hatched out by another’s labour. Once they emerge from the shell, their beauty induces the foster-mother to rear them, and as she takes delight in the impressive appearance of the fattening child, she rejects her own chicks, allowing them to pine away, until she in turn is killed by this false offspring when it is ready to fly off. In the end the cuckoo itself is torn to shreds by the hawk, one of its own relatives. No bird surpasses it for the tastiness of its flesh. 1 It has a very cold quality, an opinion expressed by Aristotle in Bk VI, Ch. 7, of his treatise On Animals. 2
