1 8 By Leafy Ways. 



and the naturalist knows well his barred breast and 

 delicate gray back, and knows, too, that he can say a 

 good deal besides his own name. 



High up in the branches of some leafless elm he 

 sits, with drooping wings and tail spread wide, and 

 utters, with the clearness and persistent iteration that 

 we know so well, his welcome and familiar cry, bowing 

 each time with a precision which suggests his being 

 moved by machinery, like the quaint but faithful 

 effigies that proclaim the hours from gable windows 

 of Bavarian clocks. Now and then he makes a noise 

 for all the world like clearing his throat. Now with 

 loose flight he leaves his perch, uttering a musical trill 

 entirely unlike his usual monotonous song. 



There seems no doubt that the cuckoo lays her 

 eggs on the ground, and carries them in her mouth to 

 the nest in which she means to leave them. Cuckoos 

 have indeed been shot in the act. 



The experience of the birdnester suggests, and the 

 examination of a long series of specimens confirms 

 the idea, that the tint of a cuckoo's egg varies with that 

 of the intended foster-parent, and that it bears a 

 strong resemblance to the eggs of the wagtail, pipit, 

 whitethroat, or other bird in whose nest it is deposited. 

 How is this to be explained ? Does the cuckoo 

 which was reared by hedge-sparrows lay eggs of a 

 bluish cast, and does she choose in her turn hedge- 

 sparrows' nests to put them in ? Or do the eggs vary 

 indifferently, and does the bird carry each one in her 



