Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/719

Rh occasion tremor in the limbs, and even a gloomy sort of mania, such dire effects, he considers, must be of rare occurrence, since, after living for years in constant inter course with persons accustomed to frequent cuca plantations, and with Indian yanacones or labourers, all of whom, whether old or young, masticated the favourite leaf, he never witnessed a single instance in which the chewer was affected with mania or tremor. Cuca was used by the Peruvian Indians in the most ancient times. It was employed as an offering to the sun, or to produce smoke at the great sacrifices ; and the priests, it was believed, must chew it during the performance of religious ceremonies, otherwise the gods would not be propitiated. Cuca is still held in superstitious veneration among the Peruvians, and is believed by the miners of Cerro de Pasco to soften the veins of ore, if masticated and thrown upon them.

Cocaine, the alkaloid to which cuca owes its special properties, was discovered by Niemann in 1859. The formula assigned to it is Ci 6 H 19 NO 4, or Ci 7 H 21 NO 4 (Lossen). It is highly poisonous, and its physio logical action is apparently identical with that of theine, caffeine, guaranine, and theobromine, which all, as has been shown by Dr A. Bennet, &quot; induce a series of symptoms affecting the nervous, respiratory, circulatory, vaso motor, and glandular systems&quot; (Edin. Med. Journ., October 1873, p. 323).

1em  CUCKOO, or, as the word was formerly and more correctly spelt changed without any apparent war rant except that accorded by custom, while some of the more scholarly English ornithologists, as Montague and Jenyns, have kept the older form the common name of a well-known and often-heard bird, the Cucuhis canorus of Linnaeus. lii some parts of the United Kingdom it is more frequently called Gowk, and it is the Greek x6x.xv%, the Italian Cuculo or Cucco, the French Coucou, the German Kuckuk, the Dutch Koekkoek, the Danish Kukker or Gjog, and the Swedish GoL The oldest English spelling of the name seems to have been Cuccu. No single bird has perhaps so much occupied the attention both of naturalists and of those who are not naturalists, or has had so much written about it, as the common Cuckow, and of no bird perhaps have more idle tales been told. Its strange and, according to the experience of most people, its singular habit of intrusting its offspring to foster-parents id enough to account for much of the interest which has been so long felt in its history ; but, as will presently appear, this habit is shared probably by many of its Old- World relatives, as well as in the New World by birds which are not in any near degree related to it. lu giving here a short account of this species, there will be no need to refute much of the nonsense about it which has found access to works even of respectable authority; but, besides the known facts of its economy, there are certain suppositions in regard to parts of its history that are unknown, which suppositions are apparently probable enough to deserve notice. To begin with the known facts. The Cuckow is a sum mer-visitant to the whole of Europe, reaching even far within the Arctic circle, and crossing the Mediterranean from its winter-quarters in Africa at the end of March or beginning of April. Its arrival is at once proclaimed by the peculiar and in nearly all languages onomatopoeic cry of the cock a true song in the technical sense of the word, since it is confined to the male sex and to the season of love. In a few days the cock is followed by the hen, and amorous contests between keen and loud-voiced suitors are to be commonly noticed, until the respective pretensions of the rivals are decided Even by night they are not silent j but as the season advances the song is less frequently heard, and the Cuckow seems rather to avoid observation as much as possible, the more so since whenever it shews itself it is a signal for all the small birds of the neighbourhood to be up in its pursuit, just as though it were a Hawk, to which indeed its mode of flight and general appearance give it an undoubted resemblance a resemblance that misleads some beings, who ought to know better, into confounding it with the Birds- of-prey, instead of recognizing it as a harmless if not a beneficial destroyer of hairy caterpillars. Thus pass away some weeks. Towards the middle or end of June its &quot;plain-song&quot; cry alters; it becomes rather hoarser in tone, and its first syllable or note is doubled. Soon after it is no longer heard at all, and by the middle of July au old Cuckow is seldom to be found in these islands, though a stray example, or even, but very rarely, two or three in company, may occasionally be seen for a month longer. This is about as much as is apparent to most people of the life of the Cuckow with us. Of its breeding comparatively few have any personal experience. Yet there are those who know that diligent search for and peering into the nests of several of our commonest little birds moro especially the Pied Wagtail (Motacilla lugulris), the Titlark (Anthus pratensis), the Reed-Wren (Acrocephalus streperus), and the Hedge-Sparrow (Accentor modularis) will be rewarded by the discovery of the egg of the mysterious stranger which has been surreptitiously introduced therein, and waiting till this egg is hatched they may be witnesses (as was the famous Jenner in the last century) of the mur derous eviction of the rightful tenants of the nest by the intruder, who, hoisting them one after another on his broad back, heaves them over to die neglected by their own parents, of whose solicitous care he thus becomes the only object In this manner he thrives, and, so long as ha remains in the country of his birth, his wants are anxiously supplied by the victims of his mother s dupery. The actions of his foster-parents become, when he is full grown, almost ludicrous, for they often have to perch between his shoulders to place in his gaping mouth the delicate morsels he is too indolent or too stupid to take from their bill. Early in September he begins to shift for himself, and then follows the seniors of his kin to more southern climes. Of the way in which it seems possible that this curious habit of the Cuckow may have originated something lias been alreaJy said (see, . ). But in connection with its successful practice a good deal remains to be determined, most of which, however probable, is still to b-j proved. So much caution is used by the hen Cuckow in choosing a nest in w hich to deposit her egg that the act of insertion has been but seldom witnessed. The nest selected is moreover often so situated, or so built, llat it would be an absolute impossibility for a bird of her size to lay her egg therein by bitting upon the fabric as birds com monly do; and there Lave been a few fortunate observers who have actually seen the deposition of the egg upon the ground by the Cuckow, who, then taking it in her bill, introduces it into the nest. Of these, so far at least as this country is concerned, the earliest seem to be two Scottish lads, sons of Mr Tripeny, a farmer in Coxmuir, who. as recorded by Macgillivray (Brit. Birds, iii. pp. 130, 131), from information communicated to him by Mr Durham W eir, saw most part of the operation performed, June 24, 1838. But perhaps the most satisfactory evidence in the point is that of Herr Adolf Muller, a f ores er at Gladenbach in Darmstadt, who says (Zoolog. Garten, 1866, pp. 374, 375) that through a telescope he watched a Cuckow as she laid her egg on a bank, and then conveyed the egg in her bill to a Wagtail s nest. Cuckows too have been not unfrequently shot as they were carrying a Cuckow s egg, presumably their own, in their bill, and this 