Songs and Call Notes. 191 



One night last summer I tensed a very irate old 

 Cuckoo I'or a long while in the Xurth of England 

 by sitting under a stone wall near a little wood and 

 mimickino' him every time he sani>\ I ado wed him 

 to utter a few notes, when I conmienced, and he 

 instantly stopped to listen. After he had con- 

 sidered the merits of my song for a little while, he 

 used some dreadful bad language about il in the 

 following words : Cti ra, Jet hi, cii, ca ck ca, era, 

 and at once proceeded to show how a Cuckoo's 

 song should be properly rendered. Nothing daunted, 

 I again held forth, and he as promptly stop[)ed to 

 listen. By-and-by he alighted on the wall-top 

 within a few yards of my head, and said a lot of 

 nasty things in a harsh, barking undertone. I 

 never answered a word, and the grey of my clothes 

 harmonising with the stones of the old wall in the 

 semi-darkness, 1 was not detected. Again he san**- 

 out — nearer, clearer, and louder than 1 had ever 

 heard a meudx-r of his species he^ore— Cachvu, 

 cacL-uu, vo.cLoti. I thcjught to myself, "Well, 1 can 

 never match that, and you will discover the ii-aud 

 this time anyway." I tried again, however, and 

 with the most surprising success. He went almost 

 frantic with rage, and Hew round and round me 

 until 1 l)roke the spell by laughing outright at him. 



Owls are birds of nocturnal habits, and the 

 weird tti whit, to wlioo of the Tawny, or Wood, 

 .species may be heard at nights in many parts of 

 the country. It is very startling and uncanny 



