WILD LIFE IN SEVERN ESTUARY 33 



The long tail hangs gracefully down ; the large 

 projecting wings reveal the immense powers of 

 flight ; the short legs and the look and general 

 poise of the bird suggest to the eye even of the artist 

 some hidden kinship, now with the swifts or night- 

 jars of the Eastern hemisphere, and now again 

 with the insect-feeding night-hawks and whip-poor- 

 wills of the Western. The plumage and actions 

 of the bird on the other hand stir something deep 

 in the mind which associates the cuckoo with the 

 birds of prey and with the owls in particular. 

 But if the mind lingers thereon the weak claws 

 immediately rule the bird out of all such categories. 



But the beak, the graceful, slender, slightly 

 curved beak. Even a tyro in the knowledge of 

 evolution recognizes the significance of the problems 

 which it suggests. Thereby is <the bird evidently 

 placed apart from all the birds of prey which have 

 solved the problem of existence by tearing and 

 feeding on flesh. Thereby is it apart from birds 

 like the parrots who with their strong beaks have 

 solved the problem of the mastery of the fruits of 

 the earth. Thereby is it apart from the foraging 

 families of the crows all the world over. And there- 

 by is it placed apart also from the immense army 

 of birds who have solved the problem of feeding 

 on hard seeds by grinding them afterwards in their 

 gizzards. A bird, large almost as a pigeon you see : 

 and yet with the beak of the innumerable small 

 species which hunt the succulent caterpillar among 

 the green leaves of the world. 



This indeed, taken in connexion with the nature 

 of its range in the Old World, is the problem of the 

 European cuckoo. One sees how the bird stands 

 3 



