. Stories about birds of land and water . There is a large grey bird that comes to us in spring, just when theleaves are budding, and the meadows are beginning to be covered withflowers. When we hear his well-known note we know that summer is song has no great variety in it. It is but a repetition of the well-knownword, cuckoo ! cuckoo ! but perhaps no other note gives us more pleasure,. THE CUCKOO. 151 He is the lowest of his tribe as regards his chmbing powers. Nor doeshe use his bill in the least, like the parrot, for helping himself to climb or forclinging ; nor, like the woodpeck
. Stories about birds of land and water . There is a large grey bird that comes to us in spring, just when theleaves are budding, and the meadows are beginning to be covered withflowers. When we hear his well-known note we know that summer is song has no great variety in it. It is but a repetition of the well-knownword, cuckoo ! cuckoo ! but perhaps no other note gives us more pleasure,. THE CUCKOO. 151 He is the lowest of his tribe as regards his chmbing powers. Nor doeshe use his bill in the least, like the parrot, for helping himself to climb or forclinging ; nor, like the woodpecker, for digging into the bark of trees. Yet,after his fashion, he can climb about on the trees, though he cannot mount up. THE JAY CUCKOO. the stem. The cuckoo is, in fact, half a climber and half a percher, andit seems rather foolish to have put him among the climbers at all. His bill is of a moderate length, and a little curved at the end. Hiswings are short and his flight is feeble. Nor does he, in his native woods, 152 STOJ^IES ABOUT BIRDS. take any long journeys, except from one tree to the other. He ahghts on thehighest boughs, and begins to hunt about among the foHage for insects,threading the most tangled mazes, and hopping from one bough to anotherwithout opening his wings. All the insects and caterpillars that lie in his route are, of course, snappedup and devoured. His movements are very quick ; and his tail is long andhelps him to balance himself on the boughs—indeed, the Indian gives himthe not very elegant name of cats-tail. He is a tropical bird, and lives both in Africa and America. Hiscostume is rather sober, but with a pleasant lustre ; and his long tail is oftenbarred with black and w
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