CUCKoo 



191 



tail-feathers blackish, tipped and spotted with white ; beak dusky, 

 edged with yellow ; orbits and inside of mouth orange yellow ; 



FIG. 65 CUCKOO. natural size. 



iris and feet yellow. Young : ash-brown barred with reddish 

 brown ; tips of feathers white ; a white spot on the back of the 

 head. Length, thirteen and a hull' inches. 



There are many cuckoos in the world, and in some countries it 

 would be possible to see three or four, or even half a dozen, distinct 

 species in the course of a single day. We have but one, and have 

 made much of it. ' Perhaps no bird,' says Yarrell, ' has attracted 

 so much attention, while of none have more idle tales been told.' 

 And he might have added, that of no other bird so much remains to 

 be known. Our cuckoo interests us in two distinct ways : he 

 charms us, and he affects the mind with his strangeness. He is a 

 visitor of the early spring, with a far-reaching, yet soft and musical, 

 voice, full of beautiful associations, prophetic of the flowery season. 

 To emote Sir Philip Sidney's words, applying them to a feathered 

 instead of to a human troubadour : ' He cometh to you with a tale to 

 hold children from their play and old men from the chimney- 

 corner.' Seen, this melodist has the bold figure, rough, feathered 



