GUIRA CUCKOO 17 
deep, one or two birds at the top to crown the pyra- 
mid; but with all their huddling together a severe 
frost is sure to prove fatal to one or more birds in 
the flock; and sometimes several birds that have 
dropped from the branch stiff with cold are found 
under the trees in the morning. If the morning is 
fair the flock betakes itself to some large tree, on 
which the sun shines, to settle on the outermost 
twigs on the northern side, each bird with its wings 
drooping, and its back turned towards the sun. In 
this spiritless attitude they spend an hour or two 
warming their blood and drying the dew from their 
scanty dress. During the day they bask much in 
the sun, and towards evening may be again seen on 
the sunny side of a hedge or tree warming their backs 
in the last rays. It is owing, no doubt, to its fecun- 
dity and to an abundance of food that the Guira 
Cuckoo is able to maintain its existence so far south 
in spite of its terrible enemy the cold. 
With the return of warm weather this species 
becomes active, noisy, and the gayest of birds; the 
flock constantly wanders about from place to place, 
the birds flying in a scattered desultory manner one 
behind the other, and incessantly uttering while on 
the wing a long complaining cry. At intervals during 
the day they also utter a kind of song, composed of a 
series of long modulated whistling notes, two- 
syllabled, the first powerful and vehement, and 
becoming at each repetition lower and shorter, then 
ending in a succession of hoarse internal sounds like 
the stertorous breathing of a sleeping man. When 
B II 
