IBIEDS 



55 



vulgaris), and the Eagle Owl (Otus maximus, Fig. 30), 

 a rare visitor. 



A bird of prey cannot 

 simply be classed as harmful 

 or useful ; a species mainly 

 injurious may sometimes 

 destroy a field-vole or a de- 

 structive bird, while a use- 

 ful species may sometimes 

 attack domestic poultry. 

 Game-preserving is destruc- 

 tive of almost all the in- 

 digenous diurnal birds of 

 prey, and of the owis to a 

 less extent. ,Yo ■ .''^•^ '^ 



Oedee: Scansores 

 (Climbees). 



Birds with two toes 

 directed forwards and two 

 backwards. The young are 

 nestlings. Here belong 

 toucans, parrots, cuckoos, and woodpeckers. The first 

 two groups are limited to the tropics; woodpeckers 

 are only of importance in the culture of fruit-trees 

 and in forestry. I describe briefly — 



The Cuckoo (Cuculus ccmorus, Fig. 34). Fourteen 

 inches long, tail eight inches. The yellowish beak 

 is slightly curved; feet yeUow. Back blue-grey in 

 old birds, brownish in young ones. BeUy white 

 with dark transverse lines. Ten tail quills, flecked 

 with white. Shy; flies like a bird of prey. The 

 female lays her eggs at intervals of about fourteen 

 days, and cannot therefore hatch them out herself 

 She lays the egg on the ground, and then takes 

 it in her bill to the nest of a small bird which 

 feed its young with insects (wagtail, grasshopper 

 warbler, nightingale, robin, lesser white-throat, wren. 



Fig. 33.— The Bam Owl (^Strix 



