The parakeets answered all together, “The pond’s heart was so filled with gratitude that she bestowed this blessing: All swans shall be white, all parakeets green, and the cuckoo bird shall sing with the sweetest voice in the jungle.”

As soon as the parakeets said this, the cuckoo began to call out, “Kahoo! Kahoo!” in a soothing, melodious lullaby.

Before that cuckoos used to squawk more obnoxiously than crows. People would hear the cuckoos and stuff their fingers into their ears. But from that day onward, their voices were sweeter than your favorite candy. People waited and waited just to hear them.

The cuckoo sat in the mango tree singing to his heart’s content, “Kahoo! Kahoo!” when a peacock flew in and landed on one of the nearby branches.

He cocked his head for a moment listening to the cuckoo’s extraordinarily sweet tune and finally asked, “Ah-ray, cuckoo bird, what kind of magic have they worked on you? Yesterday your call was as sour as a swallow’s, so today how is it that you can sing so sweetly?”

The cuckoo answered in her pleasant voice, “The pond’s heart was so filled with gratitude that she bestowed this blessing: White shall be the wing of a swan, green the wing of a parakeet, the cuckoo bird shall sing with the voice of sugar, and the peacock shall have a grand tail broader than an umbrella.”

And as soon as she said this, richly colored feathers spread out behind the peacock like a beautiful fan. The peacock was so happy that he began to dance! Before that day he had hopped along the ground, feeling crooked and clumsy. But now his richly colored feathers made him stately indeed. The peacock sashayed and displayed his new tail for all the world to see. Just think: He used to duck and hide his head because he felt so ugly!

While the peacock danced about with his fan of feathers, a rooster came walking along the road, “Ah-ray!” he cried out, “yesterday you hid from me. Today you look drunk on your own beauty, prancing around for all the world to see. Which magician stuck that pretty tail on your behind?”