A LESSON IN NATURAL HISTORY 131 



birds. When you see a drab or dark brownish 

 bird, a little longer than the robin, and very slen- 

 der for his length, put him down for a cuckoo. 

 If his tail seems the longest part of him and 

 seems likely to fall off as he flies; and if he flies 

 with a loose, dangling, dawdling flight from tree 

 to tree; and if he calls kow, kow, kow, kow-kow- 

 kow, rapidly and loudly, then it is surely a cuckoo. 

 The only bird that you might confuse him with 

 on the wing is the brown thrasher; but the 

 thrasher is a lighter brown, with a rounded, spot- 

 ted breast, and flies with a sure, strong flight; 

 whereas the cuckoo flutters and wavers uncer- 

 tainly along like some huge moth. 



And if you find his nest you will know that, too, 

 from any other bird's, because it is the flimsiest 

 criss-cross of sticks that you will ever see with 

 blue eggs in it. The turtle dove's nest is a poor 

 shift also, hardly fit to be called a nest, but it is 

 better than the cuckoo's; besides it has two white 

 eggs in it, not blue. 



Some of the birds, the whippoorwill, the murre, 

 and others lay their eggs on the bare ground or 

 on the rocks, as the case may be, without a nest. 

 The cuckoo, however, is a tree bird, and needs a 

 nest, but builds the poorest nest I know. Still 



