90 BIRDS. SCANSORES. Cuculus. 



120. A. Ispida. Common KingVfisher. — Under and be- 

 hind the eye a brown band ending at the side of the nape in 

 white. 



Ispida, Will. Orn. 101. Sibb. Scott. 16 — A. Isp. Linn. Syst. i. 17'J. 



Penn. Brit. Zool. i. 246. Temm. Orn. i. 423 W, Glas y dorian 



Not common. 



Length 7, breadth 11 inches; weight 1^ ounce. Bill blackish-brown; 

 tongue short, broad and pointed ; mouth orange. Plumage, above, bluish- 

 green, marked on the head and shoulders with azure blue, the last colour 

 uniform on the back and rump. Chin white, beneath orange-brown. Qudls 

 23, the third the longest. Tail short, of 1 2 feathers. Female more tinged 

 with green — Nest in holes in clay banks, of pellets of ejected fish-bones. 



Eggs 6, transparent pink-white. Food consisting of small fishes This bird 



frequents clear gravelly rivers, edged with willows and alders. 



As a straggler, the following species merits a place. 



Merops Apiaster. Bee-eater An individual was shot at Mattishall in 



Norfolk, a notice of which was communicated to the Linnean Societ} r , 2d 

 July 171M, by the Rev. George Smith: " A flight of about twenty was seen 

 in June, and the same flight, probably (much diminished in numbers), was 

 observed passing over the same spot in October following." Linn. Trans. 111. 

 333. Sowerby's Brit. Misc. Tab. lxix. 



SCANSORES. 



I. Gape wide ; tongue short. 

 Cuculus. 



II. Gape narrow ; tongue long. 



Picus. 

 Yunx. 



Gen. LV. CUCULUS. Cuckoo.— Bill slightly arched. Nos- 

 trils round, margined by a naked prominent membrane. 



1531. C. canorus. Common Cuckoo. — Back, breast, neck, 

 and head deep bluish-grey ; belly, thighs, and under tail-co- 

 vers white, with transverse black bars. 



Will. Orn. 62. Sibb. Scott. 15. Linn. Syst. i. 168. Perm. Brit. Zool. i. 



232. Temm. Orn. i. 381.— S, Gowk ; W, Cog; G, Cuthag, Cuach 



A summer visitant. 

 Length 14, breadth 25 inches ; weight 5 ounces. Bill blackish-brown, 

 yellowish at the base ; inside of the mouth orange-red. Irides and feet yellow. 

 Nostrils round, open and prominent. Plumage deep bluish-grey, the belly white 

 with transverse black bars. Inner webs of the quill-feathers with oval white 

 spots. Tail of 10 feathers, of unequal length, the two middle ones black, tip- 

 ped with white; the others, black with white spots. Female like the male. — Nest 

 seldom constructed by the cuckoo itself, the eggs being generally dropped, se- 

 parately, into the nests of the hedge-sparrow, wagtail, titlark, yellow-ham- 

 mer, greenfinch, or whinchat, in the temporary absence of their owners. In 

 some cases, however, it appears that the cuckoo constructs its own nest. 

 Thus, in a manuscript of Derham's on Instinct, communicated by Pennant 



