COMMON CUCKOO. 
377 
The corners of the mouth and eyelids, with 
the inside of the mouth, are orange. The plu- 
mage of the head, neck, breast, and upper parts, 
are deep bluish gray. The whole of the belly, 
and remaining under parts, and axillary feathers, 
white, with distinct black bars. The quills are 
blackish gray, the inner webs with white bars 
across. The tail is of a darker tint, approaching 
to black at the end, and is often glossed with 
green ; the feathers are tipped with white, and 
along the shaft of each there are triangular marks 
of white, which on the outer feathers meet with 
indentations of a similar colour, and give an 
appearance almost barred. The feet are gam- 
boge yellow. In the young of the first year, 
when it has attained its complete first plumage, 
the general tint is clove brown, tinted with gray 
particularly on the rump, darker on the wings 
and tail, and glossed with green, each feather 
being tipped with white, and broadly barred with 
reddish brown ; on the hind head there is often 
a patch of white of greater or less size ; the outer 
webs of the quills are barred with reddish brown, 
and the bars on the inner webs of the same 
colour become white as they reach the exterior 
edge ; the tail is tipped with white, and is 
beautifully barred with the pale reddish brown, 
the bars white at the shafts and edges of the 
feathers ; the sides of the neck and throat are 
tinged with rufous ; the rest of the under plu- 
mage is white, both broadly and distinctly barred 
with black. It may be remarked, that, so far as 
