Picarice 



109 



searching for its food of worms and insects ; the note is 

 a soft "hoop-hoop"; the nest of a little grass lined 

 with dung is placed in holes in trees or walls and 

 contains some half-a-dozen pale greenish blue eggs. 



Hoopoes 



Family CUCULID^B, or Cuckoos 



Our familiar Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) needs no 

 description, though we may remark that a brownish 

 grey bird closely barred on the lighter under surface 

 is not unnaturally mistaken for a Hawk by the un- 

 learned, especially when it has a similar flight. But 

 the Cuckoo is only with us from April till August, or 

 in the case of the young till a month or two later, and 



