“First, they say cuckoos change their nature twice a year, being cuckoos in the spring and sparrow-hawks the rest of the year. According to this account, the bird comes to us from some distant country in April in its first form on the back of a kite that is so accommodating as to serve it as a mount. This mode of travel is adopted by the cuckoo to spare its own wings, still too weak to carry it. Undoubtedly the bird’s plumage—which, as I have told you, resembles in its brown crosswise stripes on the breast the plumage of certain birds of prey—has fostered this popular belief in the changing of the cuckoo into a sparrow-hawk and of the sparrow-hawk into a cuckoo. People have allowed themselves to be deceived by this variegated dress. When the bird sings in April and May it is a cuckoo because it has the cuckoo’s cry; but when it falls silent in summer it becomes a sparrow-hawk because it has the plumage of one. So the cuckoo is changed into a sparrow-hawk, and when spring comes again the sparrow-hawk is changed into a cuckoo once more. For thousands and thousands of years this nonsense has been believed by most people. “The cuckoo is a migratory bird: it remains with us from April to September, but departs for Africa at the approach of winter. To explain its reappearance in the spring some one invented the story of its being carried on the back of a kite; but I need not assure you that there is not a word of truth in this fairy tale. The cuckoo is always a cuckoo, and it returns from warmer climes on its own wings, as does the swallow. Another legend is that the cuckoo turns into a toad.” “Isn’t that because the cuckoo, when it is young and before it has any feathers, is very ugly and looks like a toad?” asked Jules. “Exactly. And, finally, the bird is accused of discharging on plants a fatal saliva that breeds insects. The truth of the matter is that a tiny insect, light green and shaped somewhat like a grasshopper, is in the habit of pricking the stems of plants with its sucker to make the sap run; and this sap presents the appearance of a white foam that looks like saliva. The insect takes its position in the midst of this cool and foamy froth to shelter itself from the heat of the sun and to drink at its leisure. There you have the real facts in the case. ‘Cuckoo-spit’ is the name popularly given to the insect. It does little harm to plants. In reality, then, the supposed harmful saliva of the cuckoo is merely an ingenious means employed by an inoffensive little creature to keep itself cool. Many other ridiculous stories are told about the cuckoo, but it would be only a waste of time to dwell on them. Let us get on.