COMMON CUCKOO. 377 



The corners of the mouth and eyelids, with 

 the inside of the mouth, are orange. The plu- 

 mage of the head, neck, breast, and upper parts, 

 are deep bluish gray. The whole of the belly, 

 and remaining under parts, and axillary feathers, 

 white, with distinct black bars. The quills are 

 blackish gray, the inner webs with white bars 

 across. The tail is of a darker tint, approaching 

 to black at the end, and is often glossed with 

 green ; the feathers are tipped with white, and 

 along the shaft of each there are triangular marks 

 of white, which on the outer feathers meet with 

 indentations of a similar colour, and give an 

 appearance almost barred. The feet are gam- 

 boge yellow. In the young of the first year, 

 when it has attained its complete first plumage, 

 the general tint is clove brown, tinted with gray 

 particularly on the rump, darker on the wings 

 and tail, and glossed with green, each feather 

 being tipped with white, and broadly barred with 

 reddish brown ; on the hind head there is often 

 a patch of white of greater or less size ; the outer 

 webs of the quills are barred with reddish brown, 

 and the bars on the inner webs of the same 

 colour become white as they reach the exterior 

 edge ; the tail is tipped with white, and is 

 beautifully barred with the pale reddish brown, 

 the bars white at the shafts and edges of the 

 feathers ; the sides of the neck and throat are 

 tinged with rufous ; the rest of the under plu- 

 mage is white, both broadly and distinctly barred 

 with black. It may be remarked, that, so far as 



