46 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



XII. 



CUCKOO ; RAIN CROW. 



UNLESS you follow the cuckoo to his haunts, 

 you rarely see him. Now and then, perhaps, you 

 catch a glimpse of his long brown body as he 

 comes silently out of an orchard, an overgrown 

 garden, or a clump of bushes, to disappear swiftly 

 in a heavily leaved tree or mass of shrubbery 

 where he suspects a fresh supply of insects. 



A third longer than the robin, the cuckoo is a 

 slender, olive-brown bird with a light breast. The 

 two species are very similar in -appearance and 



habit, but in the yellow-billed there are distinct 

 white spots known as " thumb marks " on the 



