Rainbird
a name given somewhat indiscriminately to two cuckoos in Jamaica: (1) Saurothera (Cuculus, Linn.) vetula, a large handsome bird, soft brown-gray on the back, dullish yellow on the under surface, and rusty-red on the wings, with the long tail showily barred with black and white. It feeds on bugs, spiders, etc. It is sometimes also called tom fool, from its silly habit of gratifying its curiosity instead of securing its safety. (2) Cuculus pluvialis; head dark gray, merging on the neck into dark grayish-green, the hue of the back, rump, and wings, with metallic gloss. Tail feathers black, barred with white; throat and breast white; remaining under parts deep red-brown.
RAINBOW. The rainbow is the best known of all optical meteorological phenomena, consisting of a colored arch formed opposite the sun on falling raindrops, and visible whenever the necessary conditions of a passing shower on one side and a clear and not too high sun on the other occur. Two bows are frequently seen, each exhibiting the full spectrum of colors from red to violet; but in the inner or primary bow the red is the outer edge and violet the inner, while in the outer or secondary bow the order is reversed; the red being inside and the violet on the exterior. The colors are always arranged in a definite order, that of the solar spectrum-viz., red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, but shade imperceptibly into each other. The cause of this breaking up of the sunlight into its constituent colors is explained in most physical and meteorological text-books.
Intersecting rainbows have frequently been seen. When the sun is reflected from a surface of still water a bow is formed by the reflected image as well as by the sun itself. Lunar rainbows often occur, but the feebleness of the moon's light usually prevents any colors being observed. There are many popular weather prognostications connected with rainbows, all dependent on the fact that herd's delight," is easily understood when we remember that the rainbow is formed opposite the sun, and that weather-changes generally pass from W. to E.