JUNE BIRDS. 73 



come late and leave early, and while they 

 are with us it seems as though their visit 

 to our colder clime could be only acci- 

 dental, — as if they were continually pining 

 for the more congenial warmth of the 

 tropics whence they come. 



The cuckoos {coccyzi), like the wood- 

 peckers, belong in ornithology to the order 

 of scansores, or climbers, having two pairs 

 of toes opposite each other, instead of 

 three on one side and one on the other. 

 The family is represented in North Amer- 

 ica by two species, the black-billed and 

 the yellovv'-billed. The former is rather 

 the more northern of the two, and is, there- 

 fore, more abundant about Worcester. 

 They are both large birds, about the size 

 of the brown-thrush, though of rather 

 slenderer and more graceful build, and 

 are light-chestnut above, and white be- 

 neath. The American, unlike the Euro- 

 pean cuckoo, builds a nest of its own, and 

 rears its own offspring. Its nest is a very 

 slight affair, however, and some ornitholo- 

 gists attribute this fact to its near kinship 



