CUCULUS CANORUS. 527 



border the lake district of Cumberland and Westmoreland the 

 cuckoo is very abundant ; so also is the meadow pipit, in whose 

 nest it chiefly drops its egg. I may point out that the size 

 of the egg does not always denote the size of the bird, for while 

 the single egg of the auk and guillemot is large for the size of 

 the bird, the three eggs of the cormorant are comparatively 

 small without any particular reason, such as the cuckoo has to 

 deceive smaller birds. The curlew lays four large eggs, the 

 hooded crow five ; but though the birds are about the same 

 size, one of the curlew's would weigh all the crow's, without any 

 special cause. The general colour of the head, neck, breast, and 

 upper parts of the adult are deep bluish-grey, darkest on the wing 

 coverts ; the belly, thighs, and wing coverts white, with black 

 bars ; inner webs of the quill feathers with oval white spots ; 

 tail, black, with a few white spots ; tips of feathers, white ; bill, 

 dark brown, base yellow ; corners of the mouth and rim round 

 the eyes orange ; iris, gamboge-yellow ; gape, orange-red ; legs, 

 lemon yellow. Female similar. Before the first moult the 

 young are different, the upper parts being deep brown, tinged 

 with grey, margined and spotted reddish-brown — the feathers 

 on the forehead margined with white, and a white patch on the 

 back of the head ; throat and under parts yellowish- white, with 

 black bars. The young females have more reddish-brown, and 

 want the white on the head ; iris, brown ; legs and toes, light 

 yellow. The young still retain some of the reddish-feathers, 

 and gave rise to an erroneous new species. Having said so 

 much about the cuckoo, I may as well finish with " An Old 

 Parable dedicated to St Andrews University Court" — Dundee 

 being the manufacturing cuckoo which adroitly deposited her 

 egg in the small University nest of learning in the old city of 

 St Andrews : — 



Secluded in a hedge for years? there stood 

 A sparrow's nest ; 



And while the trees in shady wood 

 In green were dressed, 



Year after year the sparrows reared their brood- 

 Safe— undistressed. 



It chanced upon a day in early spring 



That thither new- 

 Roving abroad on her uncertain wing — 



A strange cuckoo. 

 She leaves an egg — her mocking chuckles ring 



The woodland through. 



