ODDS AND ENDS, 55 



who, assuring himself of living twenty-two years longer, from having heard 

 the Cuckoo repeat its cry just so many times, concluded that it was need- 

 less for him to pass so long a period in mortification, and resolved to return 

 and lead a jolly life for twenty years, thinking the remaining two quite 

 enough for penitence. From the regularity of the time of his appearance, 

 the Cuckoo is probably the bird designated Zitvogel in an old proverb, in 

 accordance with the passage of Pliny, ^Cautus alitis temporarii quem cuculum 

 vocant.' It is said that he never cries before the 3rd. of April, and never 

 after the festival of St. John ; but he cannot cry before he has devoured 

 a bird's egg. If you have money in your purse when he first cries, all 

 will go well during the year; and if you were fasting, you will be hungry 

 the whole year. When the Cuckoo has eaten his full of cherries three 

 times, he ceases to sing. It portends misfortune to the Servian Naiduken 

 when the Kukavitza appears early, and comes out of the black-wood. The 

 froth in the meadows caused by the Cicado spumaria is called Cuckoo's 

 spittle; Germ., Keckukspeichal; Swiss., Guggerspen; Dan., Giogespyt, other- 

 wise Hexenspeichel — Witches' spit; Norw., Troldkioringspyc; thus connecting 

 the bird with supernatural beings. The names of some plants confirm its 

 mystic character. — Oxalis acetocella; Old Germ., Gouches-ampfera; Swiss., 

 Gugger-sauer; Anglo-Saxon, Geaces-sure; Dan., Giogemad, Giogesyre. It 

 was believed that this bird liked to eat these: — Modern Germ., Kukkuksbrot; 

 Fr., Pain de Coucou, Panis cuculi; Cuckoo-flower, Lychnis Floscuculi; 

 Germ., Kukkuksblume. The Sclavonians do not attribute anything bad 

 or devilish to this bird, which they always represent as a female Zeshulice, 

 sitting on an oak, bewailing the transitoriness of spring. The Servian 

 Kukaritza was a maiden who long bewailed her brother's death, until she 

 was changed into the bird ^Sinjo Kukavitza,' (the grey.) So also in Russian 

 songs it is a bird of mourning and melancholy; and Eussian traditions speak 

 of her as a young maiden changed by an enchantress." 



December \Oih., 1855. 



ODDS AND ENDS. 



BY THE REV. R. P. ALINGTON. 



I FEAR the Owl in this neighbourhood as a species is fast disappearing. 

 Is this the case generally? The Brown Owl, {Uluda striduJa,) I seldom 

 hear, he is nearly extinct. His wild hoot on a summer's night! how often 

 have I listened to him, perched on some old oak, ^^complaining to the 

 moon!" By-the-by, "Ivy-mantled tower," does not our hooting Owl, the 

 species I suppose Gray alludes to, invariably inhabit the woodlands? yet 

 I certainly have somewhere read (I think the work was entitled '^Ornitho- 



