112 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



When seen to dash down about the legs of cattle, 

 its object is not to get milk from the udders, but to 

 catch the moths which are disturbed from the grass 

 by the cows and goats as they graze. The names 

 " Fern Owl " and " Churn Owl " — employed by Gil- 

 bert White — are far more appropriate in allusion to 

 its haunts and its remarkable notes, which in some 

 parts of the country have earned for it the names of 

 •'Eve-jar" and "Eve-churr." 



Fam. CUCULIDiE. 



CUCKOO. Cuculus canoriis, Linna3us. PI. 17, tigs. 1, 

 2, 2a. Length, 14 in. ; wing, 85 in.; tarsus, 0'8 in. 



A summer migrant, generally distributed through- 

 out England, Ireland, and Scotland, extending even 

 to the Outer Hebrides. 



There is no well-authenticated case on record 

 of the Cuckoo having been heard or seen in this 

 country before the 6th of April. The average date 

 of its appearance for the whole of England and 

 Scotland may be given as April 23, and for the 

 south of England April 15. The late Mr. Cordeaux, 

 writing from Lincolnshire on the 15th April 1899, 

 stated that, on looking through his notes of the 

 previous forty years, he found the Cuckoo seldom 

 recorded before the fourth week in April, that is, 

 after the 21st. The earliest heard was on April 8. 



As to hatching its own e^^, see Adolf Miiller, 

 and criticism by Walter, Zool., 1889, p. 214 (trans- 

 lation). Instances of Cuckoos watching over their 



