G8 BIRDS CLIMBING BIRDS DIAGRAM 4. 



ORDER OF CLIMBING BIRDS. 



PARROTS: All these birds come from distant countries ; but 

 their beautiful colour, their intelligence, and the ease with 



which they learn to speak have made 

 them valued among us. They fly 

 badly, and feed on corn, which they 

 break into small pieces with their 

 beak before swallowing it ; and on 

 fruit, which they take in their claw. 

 Their tongue is fleshy, instead of 



Head of Parrot. ^'^ tard and llorn y as in tlier 



birds. 



The Cuckoo. The Cuckoo migrates in winter, and only passes 

 the summer with us. It is found in woods ; its back is ashy, 

 and its belly white, with fine black and grey streaks. Its 

 plumage is something like that of the sparrow-hawk, but it is 

 easily distinguished from it by having its toes close together, 

 two before and two behind: The cuckoo eats a considerable 

 number of caterpillars, but it owes its celebrity chiefly to its 

 habit of making other birds hatch its eggs and rear its young. 



The female lays two eggs in the space of two or three days. 

 She lays them anywhere upon the ground. She then immediately 

 takes the egg in her beak, and puts it in the nest of some other 

 bird, generally choosing one smaller than herself. But she 

 does not abandon it, and if she sees that the bird neglects her 

 egg, she takes it away, and puts it into another nest. When the 

 young cuckoo is hatched among the family where it has thus been 

 placed, it begins to try and get rid of the other young ones. By 

 means of its rump and wings, it creeps under them, lifts them on 

 its- back to the edge of the nest, and throws them down, so that it 

 alone remains to take the food which the owners of the nest bring 

 to it without seeming to notice that their young ones are replaced 

 by this stranger. This has given rise to the expression, f k 'as 

 ungrateful as a Cuckoo." 



