186 OUR MIGRANTS. 
modern ornithologists, and seems indeed too improbable to require 
present notice. 
The Cuckoo is so well-known that but a short notice of it is 
necessary. It arrives about April and leaves in July. It lays 
its eggs in the nests of other birds, and leaves to them the 
duty and burden of incubation and raising its young. The 
Hedge Sparrow is very often saddled with this burden, which 
occasions no slight domestic trouble; for the young Cuckoo 
when he gets big enough, as he soon does, elbows the young 
Sparrows right out of their nest. To say nothing of his voracity, 
his presence must be in all respects a great burden, and, as soon 
as he can fly, off he goes, and his foster parents see him no more. 
The young birds remain after the older ones, and they all spend 
their winter in the sunny regions of Northern Africa. 
We will next notice the Wryneck, or Cuckoo’s Mate. The latter 
name is given on account of its arrival about tho same time as 
the Cuckoo. This singular bird is provided with a long tongue, 
which it darts out on its food, chiefly ants and insects, which 
adhere to a glutinous secretion with which it is supplied. It 
breeds in the holes of trees. Last year I had a live one 
brought to me in a cage. According to Gilbert White the 
’ tongue of this curious bird is occasionally coiled round its head. 
Among our other summer visitants we must notice prominently 
the Nightingale, Blackeap, Whitethroat, Redstart, Landrail, and 
Flycatcher ; numerous other species can be enumerated, but space 
and time would fail to notice them all. The Nightingale arrives 
here about the middle of April: its song continues until June. 
The distribution of this species does not extend to Ireland, 
Scotland, Wales, and many parts of England; it is not 
usually found north of Yorkshire, but seldom in Devon- 
shire, and is, I believe, unknown in Cornwall. It leaves usin the 
Autumn, and passes the winter in Northern Africa. The Black- 
cap is one of our latest visitants, and one of our sweetest songsters ; 
its note may be constantly heard as it sings cheerily to its mate, 
forming a part of the great chorus of joyful sounds which delight 
usin our communion with Nature. The Whitethroat arrives 
among us in April, atid soon distributes itself throughout the 
