270 NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



defrayed by the Epping Forest Committee. The Committee report 

 that "the pond affords enjoyment to a very hirge number of persons, 

 inchiding both residents anti visitors, and its construction has 

 very much improved the appearance of that portion of the 

 Forest." 



And finally an interesting improvement in Wanstead Park is 

 described : — 



" Wanstead Park is bounded on the east by the River Roding, and we 

 have purchased from the Trustees of the late Earl of Mornington a small 

 piece of land on the opposite bank of the river for the sum of ;^ioo, with the 

 object of controlling the flow of water from the river into the ornamental 

 waters whenever they require flushing. A dam has been in existence at that 

 spot for very many years ; but, as the land ou the opposite bank was about to 

 pass into other hands, we deemed it advisable to purchase this small portion 

 with the object of ensuring the control of the dam." 



We think that lovers of the Forest are to be congratulated 

 on the additions and improvements made during the past year. 



NOTES -ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 

 ZOOLOGY. 



The Cuckoo's Changed Tune. — " Rusticus " writes in To-Day, of 

 June 2ist, as follows : — " An old rhyme about the cuckoo, which has many 

 variations, runs sometimes like this ; ' In April he whets his bill ; in May he 

 sings all day; in June he changes his tune; in July he prepares to fly; in 

 August go he must.' For a piece of folklore this summary of the bird's life, 

 while he is with us, is remarkably accurate ; and in the matter of changing 

 their tune the cuckoos in our neighbourhood might have been keeping their 

 eyes upon the calendar, for it was in the small hours of the morning of June 

 2nd that they began, as by common consent, to vary the last of a long series 

 of ' Cuck-00-cuck-oos ' with a concluding ' Cuck-uck-oo ' or even ' Cuck- 

 uck-uck.' They were so extraordinarily noisy also on that morning as to 

 render sleep impossible after one untimely awakening ; and there was nothing 

 for it but to dress and sally forth, although it still wanted a good hour to 

 sunrise. ' 



I do not gather from the remarks of " Rusticus " from what part of 

 England he writes. But I was staying with my son at Ruyton-xi-Towns, 

 Shropshire, during the last week in April (1900) and noted while there that it 

 appeared to be the ordinary habit of the local cuckoos to conclude a series of 

 " cuck-oos " with a "cuck-uck-oo." Never having heard this prolongation 

 before, I was much interested in it, and wondered whether it was an individual 

 peculiarity or not, cuckoos being much more often heard than seen, and it 

 being impossible to be sure whether a bird uttering "cuck-uck-oo" near a 

 certain village was identical with another heard a mile or two away, or not 

 However, the cuckoos seem to change their tune earlier in west Shropshire 

 than in some other parts of England. — T. V. Holmes, Greenwich. 



