THE YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO 



his gray back. There is a touch of cinnamon brown on his wings. 

 His tail is a work of art, the two gray middle feathers being 

 twice the length of the outer ones, which are black, tipped with 

 white, and taper down gradually to the pointed middle. Under- 

 neath he is snowy white, with bluish silver reflections on his throat. 

 His bill is long and graceful, curved at the tip and broad at the 

 base, the upper mandible grayish brown and the lower yellow. 

 His hazel eyes are quick and beady-bright, he drops his yellow lids 

 in a roguish way, and his feet, slaty-blue with two toes front and 

 two back, are as trim, clean and graceful as the rest of him. 

 At the knee he has the long Hawk-like feathers of his species. 

 His head and body are slender and beautifully proportioned. 

 When on rare occasions he comes to the light and the sun strikes 

 his greenish back, reddish wings and the delicate pale blue of his 

 throat, as an example of exquisite coloring, I should not know 

 where to turn to choose a bird that can surpass him. 



This is a treat one rarely gets, for he keeps to the underbrush. 

 Where that fails him, he interrupts his flight at every small tree. 

 On the ground he seems at a loss to use his feet with ease and 

 trails his wings and erects his tail in a comical manner. He is 

 always eating; a spider here, a larva there, and caterpillars all the 

 time. He is provided with a flexible gizzard, lined with hair, 

 which makes possible the eating of this worm which is rapidly 

 destroying our fruit ; so a Cuckoo is worth many times his weight 

 in gold in any orchard. 



Of all the young birds I ever have pictured, baby Cuckoos are 

 my favorite. I can not tell how exquisite the coloring of the fine 

 silken throat-feathers and the shades of the back are. The big 

 hazel eyes, the graceful beak, the slender feet, the whole baby 

 immaculate and trusting, tender and gentle of disposition to 

 surpass any birds I know. They climb out of a nest on your 

 fingers and all over you, coo and peer as if fear or distrust never 



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