5508 Birds. 



as it did me, and on measurement I found that it extended 2f inches 

 beyond the point of the bill. I have seen a young American brown 

 bear suck molasses from the bottom of an ordinary quart wine bottle, 

 which I thought rather wonderful : there is but little difference in the 

 use to which the tongue of each is applied. 



We now come to the little wren {Troglodytes europaus), so univer- 

 sally known in Britain; he braves the cold and snows of the Cherso- 

 nese during the winter, and I observed him till near the middle of 

 March, after which I did not notice him, but perhaps he was not 

 absent, but probably the leaves kept him from my view. 



There was also a bird, who is oftener heard than seen, and who 

 announces summer by a note, which, in the temperate zone, where we 

 are used only to hear croaking, chirping or whistling sounds from birds, 

 appears singular; this bird, the common cuckoo {Cuculus canorus), 

 was heard on the south coast the first week in May, and I saw a couple 

 which a Frenchman turned out of his haversack the fourth week of 

 September. I had not a chance of examining one minutely while in 

 the country, but I saw a specimen which was procured in the Crimea 

 after my arrival in England. 



Tenuirostres. 



I can only here enumerate one species of this tribe, the same which 

 is the sole representative in England, the hoopoe (Upupa epops), of 

 which a specimen was shot two or three days before the end of March, 

 after which time these birds were not uncommon till near the end of 

 August. Many specimens were brought to England by those who 

 picked up a few birds for the cabinet. 



Fissirostres. 

 One who has simply examined a skin or dead specimen of the 

 roller (Coracias garrula) in the hand, would not form so high an 

 opinion of his colours as another who had seen the bird on the wing ; 

 it is at that time that he is seen to advantage, the wings are expanded, 

 exhibiting the deep blue, and altogether the colours, which appear 

 perhaps coarse on close inspection, blend beautifully together at a 

 distance. The person who has seen him on the wing would be apt to 

 class him differently from the other, and possibly place him following 

 the jays, and I am not sure that he would be badly placed, for he has 

 a good deal of the character and appearance of the jay about him. 

 My first meeting with this bird was early one morning in August, 

 when I had a great hunt for a couple near our camp, which, at that 



