NOTES ON TEIE CUCKOO. SS* 



bird, assisted by a Hedge-Sparrow, and when leaving the nest, or if sud- 

 denly disturbed, repeat the cry of "Cuckoo, Cuckoo." I had this last June, 

 (1855,) the pleasure of observing the same occurrence in the south of 

 Scotland, namely, in Kirkcudbrightshire, with two different birds, about 

 two miles apart, on those bleak and barren hills between the villages of 

 Lawriston and New Galloway, where there is no human habitation within 

 miles of each. In .both of these instances the Cuckoos were assisted 

 by the joyous Skylark; in both instances also did the female utter the cry 

 '^Cuckoo." I therefore do pity a certain Company, who, as our readers 

 know, in an evil hour bowed the knee to worship and glorify one another, 

 that Nature should prove so ungrateful for their patronage, and, as it were, 

 unasked, send such a flood of light upon this matter, as to annihilate clean 

 the borrowed light of their rickety theory!! 



In making the above remarks I wish it to be understood that I am not 

 vain enough to consider for one moment that my observations on this sin- 

 gular and interesting bird are novel to close observers of the wonderful works 

 of the Great Almighty; on the contrary, I am well aware that similar 

 results have been observed by more experienced zoologists than myself; 

 but the passions of some men are like heavy bodies down steep hills — once 

 in motion they move themselves, and know no ground but the bottom. 

 Every man ought to aim at eminence, not by pulling others down, but by 

 raising himself, and enjoying the pleasures of his own superiority, whether 

 imaginary or real, without intercepting others who have truth on their side, 

 and in the words of Shakspere — 



"He who filches from me my good name, 

 Eobs me of that which not enriches him, 

 But makes me poor indeed." 



We shall now conclude with the following interesting extract from the 

 pages of the "Annals and Magazine of Natural History," with which work 

 many of the readers of "The Naturalist" may not be acquainted: — 



"To no bird is the gift of prophecy more commonly attributed than to 

 the Cuckoo, whose loud measured voice resounds in the woods, just clad 

 with fresh verdure. The old German saying, 'Wann der gauch guket,' 

 denotes the beginning of the spring, just as, according to Hesiod, the 

 song of the Cuckoo announces the time of the spring rains. Two old 

 poems describe the contention of Spring and Winter about the Cuckoo, 

 and the lament of the herdsmen for him; the Spring praises, slow Winter 

 — tarda hiems — reproaches the bird; the herdsmen represent him as taken 

 away or drowned: the line is remarkable — 



'Tempus adost veris, cuculus modo nompe soporem.' 



He announces by his song the loveliest season of the year, but it is not 



