he flies through the air. He is a large bird, with coat of bluish-gray on his back, and vest of ashy gray on his breast. His wings and tail are black, crossed on the outside feathers with bars of white.

3. He hops about from one bough to another, flying only short distances, for, as you see, his wings are too short to carry him on a very long flight.

4. His tail is long, and very useful in helping him to keep his balance. He has a pretty long bill, too, with a little curve at the end. With this he snaps up flies and caterpillars on the high trees, or worms and such soft animals on the ground.

5. With this bill he picks up grain and fruit, crunches the eggs of other birds, and even pecks to death and tries to eat any stupid little mouse that he may have the good luck to pounce

upon.

6. It is pleasant to hear the cuckoo's song at a little distance in the quiet woods. When first heard, the notes are fresh, and full, and clear; as summer wears away, they are harsh and broken the voice of the cuckoo has become hoarse.

7. The country folk have made this rhyme about the cuckoo:

In April, come he will.
In May, he sings all day.
In June, he alters his tune.

In July, he prepares to fly.
In August, go he must.

8. This is another, which says much the same

thing:

In April cuckoo sings her lay;

In May she sings both night and day;

In June she loses her sweet strain;

In July she is off again.

1. The female cuckoo does not make a nest of

her own to lay her eggs in.

When she has laid

an egg, she takes it in her mouth, and, watching the chance of finding some other bird away from home, drops it into the nest among the other bird's eggs. She knows that her egg will be very well cared for there.

2. Now, does it not seem strange that those other birds are not wise enough to know that the cuckoo's egg is not their own?

The cuckoo is a clever bird, and little hedgewarblers and wagtails and blackbirds and finches are not nearly so bright.

3. The cuckoo's egg is very small for the size of the bird; it is about the same size as the eggs of those little birds, though the cuckoo is three or four times as large. The color is mottled reddish gray. The cuckoo is sharp enough to place her eggs in the nests of little birds whose eggs are most like her own.

4. By and by the egg that the cuckoo dropped into the nest is hatched, and out comes a young cuckoo. And a terrible fellow a young cuckoo is, when he finds himself in a hedge-sparrow's nest. I will tell you what he does.

tum'bles
shoul'ders
fort'night
glut'ton
hap'pens
com plain'ing

5. The young cuckoo grows very fast, and in a few days there is not room enough in the little nest for anybody but himself. He soon finds that the eggs and the other young birds are in his way. So he at once makes up his mind to turn them all out; and, as soon as he is able, he goes to work.

6. He puts his tail under an egg or a young bird, and pushes it against the side of the nest till he gets it upon his back. He then raises himself up the side of the nest as far as he can, and tumbles the egg or young bird over the edge. In this way he goes on till he gets rid of all his fellows in the nest.

7. The young cuckoo is greatly helped in these doings by a hollow in the middle of his back, and by his broad shoulders. By this means the egg or young bird is kept steady on his back, till he be ready to throw it over the edge of the nest. The hollow fills up in about a fortnight.

8. Now, if there should be two young cuckoos hatched in the same nest, what happens? Well, there is a fight. The stronger bird pushes the weaker on to his back, hoists him up, and tumbles him over the edge of the nest. There is not room for more than one young cuckoo in alittle bird's nest.

9. The young cuckoo is a great glutton, and one pair of hedge-sparrows could not bring him enough to eat. How, then, shall he be fed?

He cries, and his cry brings to his help such birds as feed on soft meat, like the little birds that he has been hatched with.

10. It is a good thing for him that he has a strange, complaining cry, like the cry of those soft-billed birds. These feed him, and attend to his wants till he is able to take care of himself; and even after that, as he is flying through the air, the little birds will bring him food, and wait upon him as if he were a prince.