t, the peculiar state of plumage in
which the female Cuckoo occasionally returns northward in her second
summer; I mean the dull reddish plumage barred with brown, extremely
like that of the female Kestrel: in this plumage she occasionally
returns in her second year and breeds; but when this is changed for the
more general plumage I am unable to state for certain, but probably
after the second autumnal moult. The changes of plumage in the Cuckoo,
however, appear to be rather irregular, as I have one killed in June
nearly in the normal plumage, but with many of the old feathers left,
which have a very Kestrel-like appearance, being redder than the
ordinary plumage of the young bird; some of the tail-feathers, however,
have more the appearance of the ordinary tail-feathers of the young
Cuckoo soon after the tail has reached its full growth: the moult in
this bird must have been very irregular, as it was not completed in
June, when, as a rule, it would have been in full plumage, unless, as
may possibly be the case, this bird was the produce of a second laying
during the southern migration, and consequently, instead of a year, be
only about six months old. This, however, is not a very common state of
plumage; but it is by no means uncommon to find a Cuckoo in May or June
with a good deal of rusty reddish barred with brown, forming a sort of
collar on the breast. I merely mention these rather abnormal changes of
plumage, as they may be interesting to any of my Guernsey readers into
whose hands a Cuckoo may fall in a state of change and prove a puzzle as
to its identity. The Cuckoo departs from the Channel Islands much about
the same time that it does from England on its southern migration in
August or September. Occasionally, however, this southern migration
during the winter seems to be doubted, as a clerical friend of mine once
told me that a brother clergyman, a well educated and even a learned
man, told him, when talking about Cuckoos and what became of them in
winter, that "it was a mistake to suppose they migrated, but that they
all turned into Sparrow-hawks in the winter." As my friend said, could
any one believe this of a well-educated man in the nineteenth century?

The Cuckoo is mentioned in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are three specimens, one adult and
two young, in the Museum, as well as some very ordinary eggs.

85. KINGFISHER. _Alcedo ispida_, Linnaeus. Fr