136 



Bird- Land Echoes. 



a mystery to me. Few exotics with similarly colored 

 blossoms can compare with it. 



From the wavy willow branches almost overhead 

 there trickled down a broken roll of gutturals, and 

 I looked for the cuckoo that I knew had uttered 

 them. What a strange bird this is ! It seems to 

 fly only when passing from tree to tree ; it glides 

 through the branches. It will — it does — pass near 



^i 



Cuckoo. 



you, time and again, all summer long, without your 

 suspecting its presence. I have been assured that 

 its cry was the complaining of a tree-toad. Kek- 

 kek-Oy kek-kek-o, ko, koy ko ; there is the sound again, 

 and I see the bird gliding from limb to limb of the 

 willow without causing the slenderest twigs to tremble. 

 It gives me the impression of an unhappy spirit, 

 doomed to wander and worry throughout all time ; 

 and I was not surprised when I read that the Rus- 



