116 CUCULUS CANORUS. 



any part of the country which they do not visit ; for while some 

 remain in the southern counties, others settle in the remotest 

 islands of the north, and although they are met with in the 

 most cultivated districts, they also frequent the valleys of the 

 wildest of our hilly and mountainous tracts. Perhaps the most 

 favourite resorts of the species are parks and plantations bor- 

 dered with fields and pasture-grounds, or the woods and thickets 

 of the upland glens ; but on the rocky hills of the most treeless 

 regions, and the bleak moors or ferny braes of the interior, it 

 is found often in great numbers, although never in flocks, for if 

 gregarious during its migrations, as some suppose, it manifests 

 no social disposition during its residence. Whether it be more 

 numerous in the south than in the north I cannot affirm, for 

 while it is stated " that they abound in the Malvern Hills, 

 making the whole circuit of them resound with their note,"" 

 they are as plentiful in the wooded valleys of the counties of 

 Ross and Inverness. 



In the maritime Highlands and Hebrides, about the time of 

 the arrival of the Wheatear, every one is on the look-out for 

 the Cuckoo. Both birds are great favourites with the Celts, the 

 latter more especially, but both may be the harbingers of evil 

 as well as of good ; for should the Wheatear be first seen on a 

 stone, or the Cuckoo first heard by one who has not broken 

 his fast, some misfortune may be expected. Indeed, besides 

 the danger, it is considered a reproach to one to have heard the 

 Cuckoo while hungry, and of such a one it continues to be said 

 that the bird has muted on him, " chac a chuaig air." But 

 should the Wheatear be seen on a turf or on the grass, or should 

 the Cuckoo be heard when one has prepared himself by replen- 

 ishing his stomach, all will go well. Such at least was the 

 popular creed twenty years ago, when I began in earnest to 

 look after birds. The Highlanders have perhaps become wiser ; 

 at least they are now poorer, and poverty gives rise to reflection. 

 The Saxons of the south, it would appear, were wont to think 

 differently of the Cuckoo, and to listen with no friendly feeling 

 to its cry. But the lover of nature, whether Saxon or Celt, 

 gladly hails the bird of summer. 



