THE CUCKOO. By Ian Wyllie.

1981 1st edition. 8vo (160 x 240mm). Pp176. Colour and b/w photographs, b/w illustrations, maps, good bibliography, olive end-papers. Green boards, spine titled in gilt.

"Using the personal experience and observation of many years, and with the aid of the researches of many other scientists, Ian Wyllie has written a comprehensive study of the cuckoo throughout the world. ...A chapter on the cuckoo family describes the classification, distribution and general characteristics of the world's cuckoos, and is followed by a detailed analysis of the European Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus - its appearance and identification, migration, food and feeding behaviour, songs and calls, social system, hosts in Britain and elsewhere, egg laying and the development of the young. Including as it does numerous previously unpublished photographs, The Cuckoo is a much-need source of reliable information on a bird which puzzles and fascinates ornithologists and bird watchers alike".