The Cuckoo is a very slender, long-tailed bird, 12 inches in length. In the male bird the mantle is ashen-grey, the tail has cross stripes, the under-parts are whitish with cross-running wavy lines. The female and young ones, with their reddish-brown dark cross bands, remind us of the Hawk. From this arises the popular superstition that the Cuckoo changes into a hawk in late autumn. The legs are yellow; eyes fiery red edged with yellow, beak dark, reddish at the corners. It never builds a nest. In its system of transplanting it shows itself an arrant knave, for it places its eggs in the nests of other birds, whose eggs, as a rule are totally different in size, colour and form. The eggs of one Cuckoo so placed may reach the number of 20 to 22, but as a rule are about 11 to 12. With regard to the Cuckoo’s usual habit of leaving us in the autumn, a belated young bird may now and again spend the winter here. One frequented my sister’s tennis ground till the end of November, when the cat caught and killed it; and a gentleman of my acquaintance, Mr. Robinson of Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire, saw one on his farm early in February of 1908. [Illustration: USEFUL. THE HOOPOE.] THE HOOPOE. (_Upupa epops._) The Hoopoe is from base of bill 10 inches long. It is a fair bird with beautiful variegated plumage. Head, upper back, and breast pale rust-red; mantle, shining black, with white ornamentation; tail also black, with a crescent-shaped white band curving inwards towards the rump. The head is adorned with a bunch of feathers which the bird can erect or depress at pleasure. The feathers of this are light coloured, with black tips, but the tips of the longest feathers are black and white. Beak, long and slightly curved, thin, and adapted for picking. It lays four to seven eggs, greenish olive, or clay colour, but always of uniform colour, which it places on the mould in the holes of trees. The Hoopoe is the only bird that fouls its nest, and brings up its young in dirt and filth. On this account both mother and young have an evil odour, as some of the bird’s names indicate. This national Hungarian bird is a migrant, and dwells chiefly on the borders of woods in the low bushes, and in the neighbourhood of pastures, where it is never weary of examining the droppings of the cows, from which it obtains beetles and maggots. It also catches gnats on the wing, and the leaping grasshoppers. It is a noisy bird, and its cry “_Hup up_”--from which its name is derived--is heard sounding vigorously from the branches. It is one of our most useful, and most brilliantly coloured birds, and should be protected. * * * * *