1 68 Wild Life in Wales 



blue, but most of them were only partially grown ; as 

 usual, they had been shed in pairs, the corresponding 

 feathers in each wing having been lost at the same time. 

 This bird drew particular attention to a common, though 

 trifling, inexactitude, which has been perpetuated in the 

 descriptions of the Cuckoo in many of the leading works on 

 ornithology (see Yarrell, etc.), viz. that the flight feathers 

 in the wings of adult birds are all barred on their inner 

 webs. In all adult Cuckoos which I have examined, the 

 secondaries have not been barred at all, but are plain bluish- 

 grey on their outer webs, and for about two-thirds on the 

 inner web, the base of the inner webs being pure white. 

 The immature secondaries, like the primaries, are all more 

 or less barred with white and red, but still have a white 

 portion at the base. The annexed photograph, showing an 

 old and a new secondary from the wing of the bird before 

 alluded to, will serve to illustrate these remarks. They are 

 contiguous feathers from the same wing. 



I have never been fortunate enough to meet with a 

 Cuckoo in the " hepatic " phase of plumage ; but as it has 

 been described as "a rich chestnut-brown, like a female 

 kestrel," it must rather nearly approach to the usual 

 immature dress, paled as the latter is by weather and wear 

 when the birds return to this country. There is, of course, 

 no reason at all why true " hepatic " varieties of the Cuckoo 

 should not occur as frequently as they do in the case of 

 some other birds, and it may be thought presumption to 

 hazard such an opinion, but still I cannot help expressing 

 a doubt whether some of the specimens seen or obtained, 

 and duly reported as belonging to the Cuculus rufus race, 

 may be anything more than young cuckoos in what must 

 after all be regarded as a normal plumage. 



