that his call does indicate rain, as it is certain that of the tree-
toad does.

The cuckoo has a slender, long-drawn-out appearance on account of the
great length of tail. It is seldom seen about farms or near human
habitations until the June canker-worm appears, when it makes frequent
visits to the orchard. It loves hairy worms, and has eaten so many of
them that its gizzard is lined with hair.

The European cuckoo builds no nest, but puts its eggs out to be
hatched, as does our cow blackbird, and our cuckoo is master of only
the rudiments of nest-building. No other bird in the woods builds so
shabby a nest; it is the merest makeshift,--a loose scaffolding of
twigs through which the eggs can be seen. One season, I knew of a pair
that built within a few feet of a country house that stood in the midst
of a grove, but a heavy storm of rain and wind broke up the nest.

If the Old World cuckoo had been as silent and retiring a bird as ours
is, it could never have figured so conspicuously in literature as it
does,--having a prominence that we would give only to the bobolink or
to the wood thrush,--as witness his frequent mention by Shakespeare, or
the following early English ballad (in modern guise):--

"Summer is come in,
Loud sings the cuckoo;
Groweth seed and bloweth mead,
And springs the wood now.
Sing, cuckoo;
The ewe bleateth for her lamb,
The cow loweth for her calf,