270 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



be seen mobbing the Cuckoo, much in the same 

 manner as they do a Hawk. The beak of the adult 

 Cuckoo is a dark bluish horn, except just at the base, 

 which is pale brown ; the irides are yellow ; the 

 head and the whole of the upper parts are uniform 

 bluish slate-colour; the tail and quill-feathers are 

 a shade darker; the tail-feathers are tipped with 

 white and have also a few small spots of the same 

 colour close to the shaft, each side of it, all the 

 way up ; the throat and breast are the same colour 

 as the upper parts, but a very slightly lighter shade ; 

 flanks, belly and all the rest of the under parts are 

 white, barred with bluish slate ; the under surface of 

 the wing is white, very broadly barred with black ; 

 legs and toes yellow, claws yellowish brown. The 

 young bird of the year before its departure is very 

 different : the beak is not so dark ; the irides are 

 brown ; there is a white patch on the forehead and 

 on the back of the head; the rest of the feathers of 

 the head and neck are darkish slate, tipped and 

 edged with dull white and pale brown; the back, 

 scapulars, rump and tail-coverts are the same ; the 

 wing-coverts the same, but mottled with reddish 

 brown ; the quills are dusjsy, barred with white and 

 reddish brown, and the outer web of the tertials is 

 also mottled with reddish brown ; the tail is dusky, 

 very distinctly barred and mottled with brown and 

 white ; the throat is bluish slate, mottled with white ; 

 the rest of the under parts as in the old bird. At a 



