138 SPRING. 



to five and a quarter ounces. The plumage on the 

 upper part is bluish grey ; the colour below is white, 

 barred with black, and the feathers of the tail have 

 white spots; the legs, the root of the bill, and the 

 irides are yellow ; and the gape, which is very large, 

 is of a bright orange yellow, and makes the young 

 birds look very formidable when in the nest. The legs, 

 which are small and weak in the adult bird, are very 

 feeble in the young, whose locomotion, before they take 

 to the wing, is performed with great difficulty and 

 partly by the aid of the beak. Caterpillars are the 

 principal food of the cuckoo, and it is a frequent and 

 voracious feeder ; for though it often sings from the 

 tops of trees, as well as when on the wing, it is con- 

 stantly shifting its place, and diving into the thick 

 foliage in quest of its prey. It is said that the old ones 

 show considerable dexterity in dressing the hairy cater- 

 pillars, though some say that" castings" of the hairs by 

 the young ones have been found, similar to the castings 

 by the rapacious birds. Though their migration shows 

 that they can take long flights, the cuckoos are very 

 chary of their energy, and though there are few birds 

 more easy to move than the cuckoo, there is hardly 

 any that is with more difficulty driven from a copse, 

 as it will take shelter a number of times in the same 

 tree. That is one of the reasons why their manners are 

 so imperfectly known, and their nests found with so 

 much difficulty. They enter a tree or escape from it 

 with great neatness ; and they have, in common with 

 many birds that feed and nidify in trees, a habit of 

 jerking a twig of a neighbouring tree, while of that 

 which they hover on or enter not a leaf stirs. 



The eggs of the cuckoo are small for the size of the 



