THE YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO 



and taper gradually to the pointed middle. Underneath he is 

 snowy white, with bluish silver reflections on his throat. His bill 

 is long and graceful, curved at the tip and broad at the base, the 

 upper mandible grayish brown and the lower yellow. His hazel 

 eyes are quick and beady-bright, he drops his yellow lids in a 

 roguish way, while his feet, slaty blue with two toes front and 

 two back, are as trim, clean and graceful as the remainder of him. 

 At the knee he has the long Hawk-like feathers of his species. 

 His head and body are slender, being beautifully proportioned. 

 When on rare occasions he comes to the light so the sun strikes 

 his greenish back, reddish wings and the delicate pale blue of his 

 throat, as an example of exquisite colouring, I should not know 

 where to turn to choose a bird that can surpass him. 



This is a treat one rarely has, for he keeps in the underbrush. 

 Where that fails him, he interrupts his flight at every small tree. 

 On the ground he seems at a loss to use his feet with ease and 

 trails his wings and erects his tail in a comical manner. He is 

 always eating; a spider here, a larva there, and caterpillars all the 

 time. He is provided with a flexible gizzard, lined with hair, 

 which makes possible the eating of this worm which is rapidly 

 destroying our fruit; so a Cuckoo is worth many times his weight 

 in gold in any orchard. 



Of all the young birds I ever have pictured, a Cuckoo is 

 my favourite. I can not tell how exquisite are the colouring of 

 the fine silken throat-feathers or the shades of the back. The 

 big hazel eyes, the graceful beak, the slender feet, the whole 

 baby immaculate and trusting, tender and gentle of disposition 

 to surpass any birds I know. They climb out of a nest on your 

 fingers and all over you, coo and peer as if fear or distrust never 

 existed. All you have to do to make a study of them any way 

 you can think of is to hold out your hand they will climb on 

 and place them on a branch face or back to the camera. They 



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