CLIMBERS. 



269 



bill is smooth, or more or less bending; the nostrils aie bounded 

 by a small rim ; the tongue is short and pointed ; and the feet and 

 toes are formed for climbing. There are forty-six species. Our 

 limits will only allow us to give some description of cucvlus canorus, 

 or the common cuckoo. It weighs about five ounces ; is in length 

 fourteen inches ; and in breadth, from tip to tip of extended wings, 



The Cuckoo. 



twenty-five inches. The bill is black, and about two-thirds of an 

 inch in length. It is generally of a dove-color. The legs are 

 short, and the toes four in number, two backwards, and two for- 

 wards, like those of the woodpecker. It departs from Europe in 

 the end of harvest and returns in the spring. Summer is con- 

 sidered fairly commenced when the monotonous notes of this bird 

 are first heard. And monotonous as its notes are, thej are uni- 

 23* 



