ars, and they
do an awful lot of damage. I can't bear them myself because they are so
hairy, and very few birds will touch them. But Cuckoo likes them. There
he comes now; just watch him."

A long, slim Dove-like looking bird alighted close to the caterpillar's
nest. Above he was brownish-gray with just a little greenish tinge.
Beneath he was white. His wings were reddish-brown. His tail was a
little longer than that of Mourner the Dove. The outer feathers were
black tipped with white, while the middle feathers were the color of
his back. The upper half of his bill was black, but the under half was
yellow, and from this he is called the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. He has a
cousin very much like himself in appearance, save that his bill is all
black and he is listed the Black-billed Cuckoo.

Cuckoo made no sound but began to pick off the hairy caterpillars and
swallow them. When he had eaten all those in sight he made holes in the
silken web of the nest and picked out the caterpillars that were inside.
Finally, having eaten his fill, he flew off as silently as he had come
and disappeared among the bushes farther along the old stone wall. A
moment later they heard his voice, "Kow-kow-how-kow-kow-kow-kow-kow!"

"I suppose some folks would think that it is going to rain," remarked
Kitty the Catbird. "They have the silly notion that Cuckoo only calls
just before rain, and so they call him the Rain Crow. But that isn't
so at all. Well, Peter, I guess I've gossiped enough for one morning. I
must go see how Mrs. Catbird is getting along."

Kitty disappeared and Peter, having no one to talk to, decided that the
best thing he could do would be to go home to the dear Old Briar-patch.

CHAPTER XXXV. A Butcher and a Hummer.

Not far from the Old Orchard grew a thorn-tree which Peter Rabbit often
passed. He never had paid particular attention to it. One morning
he stopped to rest under it. Happening to look up, he saw a most
astonishing thing. Fastened on the sharp thorns of one of the branches
were three big grasshoppers, a big moth, two big caterpillars, a lizard,
a small mouse and a young English Sparrow. Do you wonder that Peter
thought he must be dreaming? He couldn't imagine how those creatures
could have become fastened on those long sharp thorns. Somehow it gave
him an uncomfortable feeling and he hurried on to the Old Orchard,
bubbling over with desire to tell some one of the strange and dreadful
thing he had seen in the