306 IIIE FEATHERED TRIBES. 



Wliilu I am lying on the grass, 



Thy two-lold shout I hear, 

 Tluit seciiis to fill the whole air's space, 



As loud i'ar off as near. 



Though bahhling only to the vale 



Of sunshine and of flowers, 

 Thou bringcst unto me a tale 



Of visionar3' hours. 



Thrice welcome, darling of the Sjirin j ! 



r^v'n yet thou art to me 

 No bird ; but an invisible thing, 



A voice, a mysterj-, 



The same whom in my schoolboy days 



I listened to : that cry 

 A\'hich made me look a thousand ways. 



In bush, and tree, and sk}', 



To seek thee did I often ro\'e 



I'lirough woods and on the green ; 

 And thou wert still a hope, a love; 

 iStill longed for, never seen. 



And I can listen to thee yet, 



fan lie upon the plain. 

 And listen till I do beget 



Tluit golden time again. 



THE GILDED CUCKOO.* 



This beautiful bird inhabits the country above the Cape of Good Hope, being extremely 

 common in CafFraria and Nanuitjiia-land. The lualc utters a cry similar to tlie word 

 cli-(li-di-dric, whence has arisen one of its names. Vaillant states tliiit his servant, Klaas, 

 shot 210 males, 130 females, and 103 young ones, in all 443, and that numbers more 

 might easily have been procured ; adding, " besides which, eighty-three of their eggs in 

 as many nests belonging to insectivorous birds, were obtained. Although this bird (the 

 (lidric) be so common, if not in tlie immediate environs, yet about one hundred leagues 

 from Cape Town, it was scarcely known in Europe before my voyages, and in Frtinee 

 there was only one mutilated and badly preserved specimen of it to be seen in the lloyal 

 Museum at Paris. I myself brought over one hundred and fifty males and females, as 

 well as young ones, which are now exliibited in the chief cabinets of Eurojje. To this 

 beautiful species also I am indebted for my chief knowledge of the ciu'koo familj-. l'''rom 

 the facility I had of leisurely and successfully observing its manners, I always entertained 

 the hope that I should one day surprise a female didric in the act of depositing its egg in 

 the nest of another bird ; but having been disappointed in tliis respect, I began to imagine 

 that my ignorance on this point would never be removed, wlien one day having killed a 

 female of this species, and wisliing to introduce into its throat a plug of liemp, according 

 to my custom, after bringing down a bird, in order to prevent the blood from staining its 

 plumage, I was not a little surprised, on opening its bill for that purpose, to find in its 

 throat an entire egg, which I knew immediately, from its form, size, and beautiful 

 wliiteness, to belong to flie didric. Delighted at length, after so many usidess eilurls, at 

 havikg obtained a confirmation of my suspicions, I loudly ctiUed my I'ailhful Klaus, wlio 

 was only a few paces distant from me, to whom I imparled my discovery with mucli 



• C'uculus jVuratus. 



