4°4 
The Hijlory of ANIMALS* 
c u c u l u s * ©je €tmm> 
The cuckow is a bird ofconfiderablebeauty,when dofely examined ; and the male and 
female differ fo much in their colour, that it would be eafy to miffake them for diflinc3 
fpecies. The female is about the lize of a fparrow-hawk, or fomewhat fmaller. It 
is a very well-made bird, and ufually (lands eredt and firm: the head is moderately 
large, and fomewhat depreffed : the eyes are large, and piercing in their afped; the 
beak is a little hooked, but not much fo; the upper chap is fomewhat longer than the 
under, and is black; the under one is green : the noftrils are large, prominent, patu¬ 
lous, and naked : the tongue is flatted, and of a fagittated figure, 
# 
The head, the neck, and back are all of a hoary colour, with fome dark grey fea¬ 
thers of a peculiar glofs, fhewing themfelves in fome places: the throat, and indeed 
all the under part of the neck, is of an undulated flefh colour, or very pale red, with 
an admixture of yellow : the rump is of the fame colour with the back, only paler 5 
and the belly is whitifh, but variegated with elegant, trafifverfe lines, of a finning", 
brownifh-black ; the under part of the tail is alfo of the fame hue, only whiter. 
The tail is long; it iscompofed of ten feathers; thefe are black, butwith the tips white, 
and there are alfo fome other white fpots on them, both at the Tides and in the middle : 
the wings are long ; they are of a brownifh-black on the upper Tides, and on the under 
they are of a hoary greyifh, with tranfverfe lines of white : the long feathers are 
black. 6 
The legs are moderately long, and are covered pretty low on the anterior part with 
feathers: their naked part is yellow; the toes are long, and they (land two before and 
two behind ; the claws are long, black, and (harp. 
In the male, the head is of a pale filvery grey, without any admixture of fpots or 
variegations; the back is of a fomewhat dufkier grey than the head, but neither in 
this is there any variegation, or any feathers darker, or otherwife different from the 
refl : the under part of the throat alfo is grey, without any fpot: the belly is of a 
darker colour than in the female, and the under part of the tail is yellowifh: both 
male and female are fometimes darker, and fometimes paler coloured, and have more 
or lefs variegations of the different fhades of grey, but there is no foundation for the 
dividing them from this accident into different fpecies. 
This breeds with us, but does not remain the whole year. All the writers on birds 
have defcribed it, and all under the fame Ample name of Cuculus; only Linn^us, 
who makes the jynx a fpecies of the fame genus, calls this Cuculus redricibus nigri- 
cantibus pundis albidis. 
PARADISE A. 
T HE beak of the Paradifasa is of a cultrato-Tubulated form, and acute; and the 
forehead is gibbous: the two middle feathers of the tail are extreamly long, 
and very firm, 
Paradifcea fuhruhem alis coccineo et Jlavo varie- 
gatis. Xfte common MtD 
The reddifh Paradifcea , with the wings variegated of 
with red and yellow. 
This elegant fpecies is about the bignefs of a fwallow, and it fomewhat refembles 
that bird in fhape, if the body only be examined ; though, taking in the whole bird, it 
has not the leafb refemblance to any thing, but the other fpecies of it’s own genus; the 
whole 
