264 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
the tail are light bluish grey, the same as the back; 
the next feather on each side is black, with a greyish 
tip; the two next the same, with a spot of white near 
the tip on the inner web; the outside feather on 
each side has a longish spot of white on the outer 
web also, but rather lower down than the other spot— 
the base of all these feathers is black; chin and 
throat nearly white; breast and belly buff; the flanks 
and under tail-coverts are a sort of chesnut, the 
feathers on the latter tipped with white; legs, toes 
and claws light brown. 
The egg is much lke that of the Creeper in 
colour, but considerably exceeds it in size, being 
quite as large as that of the Blackcap. 
Family CucuLip. 
The Cuckoos are the last of the British Scansores, 
and except for the fact of the outer toe on each foot 
being reversed, there seems to be no reason why they 
should be included in this division at all; they, how- 
ever, make a link between the Scansores and the last 
division of the Insessores, the Fissirostres, having 
the reversed toe, which is the peculiarity of many of 
the climbers, and in a great measure the wide gape 
of the Fissirostres. There are three species of 
Cuckoos now included in the list of British birds, 
but the appearance of two of these species has been 
so unusual that they ought not to retain their place 
in the list, | 
