278 . SCANSORES. CUCULID^E. 



the abdomen is destitute of feathers and even of 

 down. 



The obesity of this bird is often extraordinary ; I 

 have seen the fat lying over the bowels, between the 

 stomach and the vent, three-fourths of an inch thick. 

 When alive, it has a strong musky odour, like that of 

 the John-crow. 



" In the changes of our mountain roads," remarks 

 Mr. Hill, " from deep masses of shadowy forest, 

 with prodigious trees overgrown with moss, and 

 climbing shrubs and lianes, to luxuriant and park- 

 like pastures, flowery hedgerows and shrubby thickets, 

 two sounds, remarkable and different from each 

 other, prevail. The one is the tapping of the 

 Woodpecker, broken in its measured monotony by 

 an occasional scream ; and the other the rattle of the 

 Rainbird, varied by a cry at intervals like the 

 caw of the Crow tribe. The deep forest is the 

 haunt of the Woodpecker, the open thickets the 

 resort of the Rainbird. The insects which form the 

 food of the one, are those that subsist out of the 

 sun-light, and perforate the alburnum of trees, or 

 live beneath the bark ; those that are the prey of 

 the other, are the tribes that find their sustenance 

 on the surface of vegetation, exist in the shade, and 

 only resort to the open air to shift from place to 

 place." 



