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moi-e complete than that of other birds : and it takes place 

 later with those in a state of confinement, which are not 

 stripped of their plumage until October or November. At 

 this period, the wild cuckows emigrate to a milder climate, 

 which they could not do were they despoiled of their feathers 

 to the same extent as the tame ones. We must attach no 

 credit to the story of some of them remaining during the 

 winter in a lethargic state, without their feathers, in hollow 

 trees, or holes in the earth. Neither are we to believe, 

 though their moulting is long and slow, that they return in 

 spring, without their due complement of feathers ; this sup- 

 position is neither borne out by actual observation, nor by 

 any means compatible with the fact of their having performed 

 the voyage from Africa into our northern climates. 



The males give over singing in the first days of July ; this 

 silence does not announce their approaching departure, but 

 the commencement of the moulting. The greater numbers mi- 

 grate from the first to the fifteenth of September ; those found 

 to the end of this month and later, are doubtless young ones, 

 which were too weak to accompany the others. The early cold, 

 and the dearth of insects, and soft fruits, (for these birds are 

 fructivorous, in case of necessity,) determine them to pass 

 into warmer climates. They pass twice into Malta and the 

 Greek Islands of the Archipelago, where they arrive at the same 

 time as the turtle doves. As the cuckows are less numerous 

 than the doves (only a single one is usually discovered in 

 the midst of a flight of the others, of which he appears to be 

 the chief,) this circumstance has given occasion to the modem 

 Greeks to call the cuckow trigono kracti, which means, leader 

 of the turtles. It is important to observe, (according to the 

 remark of Sonnini,) that the migrating cuckow changes almost 

 all its natural habits as known to us. It is no longer solitary; 

 it is seen with other birds of its own species ; and it travels, as 

 has already been remarked, with numerous companies of birds 

 of different species. During this exile, which imperious 



