CUCULID.^— CUCKOO. 



153 



Family CUCULID^. 



Cuckoo : Cuculns cauorus. 



A common and very familiar summer visitant, arriving about the 

 middle of April, or a little earlier, and leaves again late in August, 

 though young birds often 

 remain until much later. 

 For instance, about the 

 middle of October, 1877, 

 a young bird was sent to 

 Mr. Scruby of Ongar for 

 preservation, and another 

 was killed at the Svvin 

 Middle Lightship on Nov. 

 26th, 1885 (42). 



Mr. John Smith, of Brent- 

 wood, possesses a specimen, 

 killed at Upminster Common 

 in June, 1885, which he des- 

 cribes as being an adult female 

 in brown plumage, the colour 

 and markings on the upper 

 parts being exactly similar to 

 those on the hen Kestrel, while 

 the under-parts resemble those 

 of a 3'oung Cuckoo. In the Museum at Saffron Walden is a specimen which Mr. 

 Gurney describes as " the most beautiful specimen of a young Cuckoo he ever 

 saw." Mr. Smoothy has one shot by himself in Mann Wood, Ashdon, in May, 

 1850, which has the reddish back and tail of the young bird, while the breast is 

 barred like that of the adult. It is a female, as an egg fell from it when shot. 



CUCKOO, '%. 



