THE CUCKOO. 
25 
terminal black band, the feathers being irregularly barred with 
blackish ; under surface of body buffy-white, barred with black, 
the buff colour deeper on the throat. By some naturalists it is 
supposed that this “ hepatic ” stage lasts throughout the bird’s 
hfe, but I have seen specimens moulting from it into the grey 
plumage of the fully adult bird. 
®'ange in Great Britain. — A summer visitor, arriving in April, 
Somewhat irregularly in some years, when the seasons are back- 
ward, and leaving about the end of July. The young birds, 
however, are later in their departure, and are sometimes seen 
as late as the middle of September. The males come a few 
days before the females, and greatly out-number the latter. It 
^sits every portion of the British Islands, and even the out- 
‘yuig isles. 
Range outside tire British Islands. — The Cuckoo has been known 
te visit the Fmroe Islands, and is found nearly everywhere 
throughout Europe and Northern Asia to Kamtchatka, but 
h does not visit the tundras of Siberia, according to Mr. See- 
bohra. In Norway it extends its range almost to the North 
^ape, and in the valleys of the I’etchora and the Ob it reaches 
to 66j^“ N. o,, {[.le Yenesei to 67°, and in Eastern Siberia 
Jt has been recorded from the Stanovoi Mountains (62° N. lat.) 
by Middendorf. It breeds throughout the Mediterranean coun- 
tf'es, but is chiefly known as a migrant, and the same may be 
?^td of it in India, as only a few breed in the Himalayas. I saw 
't not uncommonly at Simla in the summer of 1885. 
The winter home of the Cuckoo extends throughout the 
thican continent, as it occurs at that season on the Gold 
^ oast, and it is also found in South Africa. Throu^iout the 
tele of the Indian Peninsula it likewise extends in winter, 
ocl even reaches Australia. 
Babits — The natural economy of the Cuckoo is of such an 
Extraordinary nature, that a whole volume could easily be 
ntten on the life-history of this curious and interesting bird. 
^ te peculiar facts connected with its breeding are worthy of 
prolonged study, and there is doubtless much still to be 
^iscoyered respecting the behaviour of the bird during the 
teg-season. That there is a great predominance in the 
mber of males over that of the females which visit this 
