THE CUCKOO. 



' CUCULUS CANORUS. 



Upper plumage bluish ash colour, darker on the wings, lighter on the neck and 

 chest ; under parts whitish with transverse dusky streaks ; quills barred on 

 the inner webs with oval white spots ; tail-feathers blackish, tipped and spotted 

 with white : bill dusky, edged with yellow ; orbits and inside of the mouth 

 orange-yellow ; iris and feet yellow. Young ash-brown, barred with reddish 

 brown ; tips of the feathers white ; a white spot on the back of the head. 

 Length thirteen inches and a half, breadth twenty-three inches. Egg dull 

 white, speckled all over with ash-brown. 



No bird in a state of nature utters a note approaching so 

 closely the sound of the human voice as the Cuckoo ; 

 on this account, perhaps, partially at least, it has at all 

 times been regarded with especial interest. Its habits 

 have been much investigated, and they are found to be 

 unlike those of any other bird. The Cuckoo was a 

 puzzle to the earlier naturalists, and there are points in 

 its biography which are controverted still. From the days 

 of Aristotle to those of Pliny, it was supposed to undergo 



