MERRY MAY. 39 



feet or more long, and at the end the nest is 

 placed. These birds are very gregarious, and 

 are often found in vast flocks. About the same 

 time arrives the Cuckoo or Gowk ("a creature who 

 has but one idea, and is always repeating it.") 

 " Ye breed o' the gowk, 

 Ye have never a sang but ane." 



It is only the male bird that utters the well- 

 known cry. One peculiarity of the Cuckoo is 

 the smallness of its egg compared to the size 

 of the bird, the egg in size resembling that of 

 the Robin or Sparrow. What is called the 

 " Cuckoo's spittle," a mass of white frothy matter 

 attached to the stalks of grasses, flowers, &c., 

 has nothing to do with the Cuckoo. These 

 frothy lumps are the secretion from the body of 

 a little green insect, to protect it from heat 

 while it sucks the plant until it is full grown, 

 when it changes to a pupa, and from this 

 emerges the perfect insect, the Froghopper, called 

 by Linnaeus Cicada Spumaria. 



Then comes the beautiful armv of warblers 



