52 BIRDS OF P. E. ISLAND 



delighted haunt is the upper river course, where 



the foHaged banks make mystic shadows on the 



moving crystal of the tide. Unseen he sits on 



some shadowed perch, motionless until the glint 



of scales passes in the stream below. Then, like 



a winged javelin, he dashes, and in a moment 



rises from the silvery spray with an exultant laugh, 



bearing off his finny prey to his home in the 

 deep -drilled river bank. His nest - hole, seven 



or eight feet deep, is sunk in the face of a clear 



clay bank. The nest, where half a dozen hardy 



young ones are reared, consists of a few scattered 



fish bones lining the rude clay cavity. 



|3lack-lnlleb Cuckoo. 



( Coccygus erytJiropJitJialinus) 



The Black - billed Cuckoo is a rare summer 

 visitant that spends but a few short weeks of the 

 leafy months with us. Tennyson says of the 

 English Cuckoo : 



'&' 



" To right and left 

 The cuckoo told his name to all the hills." 



