100 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



plumage in which the female Cuckoo occasionally 

 returns northward in her second summer ; I mean 

 the dull reddish i)lumage barred with bro^n, 

 extremely like that of the female Kestrel : in this 

 plumage she occasionally returns in her second 

 year and breeds ; but when this is changed for the 

 more general plumage I am unable to state for 

 certain, but probably after the second autumnal 

 moult. The changes of plumage in the Cuckoo, 

 however, appear to be rather irregular, as I have 

 one killed in June nearly in the normal plumage, 

 but with many of the old feathers left, which have 

 a very Kestrel-like appearance, being redder than 

 the ordinary plumage of the young bird ; some of 

 the tail-feathers, however, have more the appear- 

 ance of the ordinary tail-feathers of the young 

 Cuckoo soon after the tail has reached its full 

 growth : the moult in this bird must have been very 

 irregular, as it was not completed in June, when, as 

 a rule, it would have been in full plumage, unless, 

 as may possibly be the case, this bird was the pro- 

 duce of a second laying during the southern 

 migration, and consequently, instead of a year, be 

 only about six months old. This, however, is not 

 a very common state of plumage ; but it is by no 

 means uncommon to find a Cuckoo in May or June 

 with a good deal of rusty reddish barred with brown, 

 forming a sort of collar on the breast. I merely 

 mention these rather abnormal changes of plumage. 



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