e North American red-headed woodpecker, and
the South American yellow-crested variety; the Carolina woodpecker;
and the Cayenne woodpecker. The third case contains the African and
American ground woodpeckers; and the Wrynecks of Africa, Europe, and
India. The chief food of the wrynecks consists of ants, which they
pick up with their delicately tapered tongues.

The three last cases devoted to perching birds, are occupied by the
varieties of the Cuckoo family. In this country, the notes of the
cuckoo are hailed as the announcement of the dawning summer; and the
solitary and peculiar habits of the bird, but particularly its custom
of placing its eggs in the nests of larks, finches, sparrows, &c., and
so getting alien birds to bring up its young, have always made it an
object of particular curiosity to people generally. This latter custom
has been explained, by a high authority, thus:--"The fact is, that the
cuckoo is obliged by its constitutional character to stay an unusually
short time in the northern regions where it produces its young. In our
country its normal stay is only from the middle of April to the
beginning of July. Belated in its approach to the nursing regions, it
is obliged to make use of the nests of other birds, which it finds
ready built. What is worthy of notice, it employs the nests of its own
nearest relations, the larks, pipits, finches, sparrows, &c.--an
arrangement we may suppose to be connected in some way with the early
history of the whole group of species--a family or clan sacrifice, as
it were, for the benefit of a less fortunate member."[3] In the first
case of cuckoos, are the African honey cuckoos, and the South American
rain cuckoos. The birds of the former of these varieties are noted for
guiding depredators to the wild honeycombs; and the latter live upon
insects, snakes, and fruits. Here too are the Coucals of Africa, Java,
South America, and Australia, including the Australian giant coucal,
the Asiatic, South American, and West Indian anis; and the two cuckoos
of the tropics, including the gilded cuckoo, the greatspotted cuckoo,
and white-crested cuckoo from Africa, and the common European cuckoo.
Before leaving the region devoted to perching birds, the visitor
should glance at a few of the pictures which are suspended above the
cases in this compartment. They include, amongst various portraits of
British Museum donors, three of Sir Hans Sloane, one by Murray; Robert
Earl of Oxford, by