88 Birds I Have Kept. 



of -which belong to the tail, which is more than half covered 

 by the folded wings. The head, upper part of the neck, 

 shoulders and back are of a dark ash colour, with a greenish 

 tinge, mottled and barred with a delicate shade of brown. 

 The tail is spotted and edged with white. 



The female is rather smaller than her mate; the upper part 

 of her body is brown, with whitish grey spots; the belly is 

 greyish white, thickly marked with dark transverse lines. 



The young have red and olive brown bars on their backs 

 and shoulders, darker in the case of the young males than in 

 that of their sisters. 



The legs of the Cuckoo are very short, and the feathers 

 of the thigh project backwards for about an inch: the toes 

 are directed, as in the case of the Parrots, two forwards, 

 and two backwards, and are of unequal length: hence the 

 term Zygodactylous applied to these birds. 



The Cuckoo is a bird of passage, arriving, as an old rhjrme 

 says, in April. 



"In April, come he will: 

 In May, he sings all day; 

 In June, he's out of tune: 

 In July, he prepares to fly: 

 In August, go he must." 



Nevertheless, many of these birds remain with us until the 

 middle or even the end of September. 



•Having selected the nest in which to deposit her smaU 

 greyish white egg, covered with rusty brown spots, though 

 occasionally it is quite white, without any markings whatever, 

 it is a great mystery how the mother Cuckoo accomplishes 

 her purpose, as sometimes the nest chosen is situated in a 

 hole, in a wall for instance, into which it would be impossible 

 for the Cuckoo to enter, and occasionally, when hatched, the 

 young interloper is unable to get out, like Sterne's poor Star- 

 ling, of which more in a subsequent chapter. 



It is not often, however, that the Cuckoo makes such a 



