276 THE CUCKOO. 



the general colour of its plumage from the old bird, — beiag 

 clove-brown, barred with reddish brown, — and at this stage 

 it is sometimes shot by mistake for a hawk. The old 

 Cuckoos leave the county in the beginning of July, but 

 the young ones stay with us until August,^ and sometimes 

 the beginning of September,^ 



The food appears to consist of various insects and 

 caterpillars. 



This species is known in Berwickshire as " The Gowk ; " 

 and in some parts of the county the 1st of April is called 

 " Hunt the Gowk," ^ when boys and others are sent on fools' 

 errands, and the following distich is sometimes heard — 



The first of April, 



Hunt the Gowk another mile. 



The name of " Gowk oats " is given in Berwickshire to 

 grain of that kind sown in April. In an early March it is 

 said, " there will be no ' Gowk oats,' " "* whilst in the late 

 spring of 1888, when heavy snow-storms prevailed until 

 the end of this month, farmers were heard remarking 

 that " they would be a' ' Gowk oats ' thegither this year." 

 Before the adoption of the New Style in 1752, the Cuckoo 

 would generally arrive in this county shortly after the 

 middle of April, and this may have given rise to the 

 association of the " Gowk " with that month. 



1 Mr. James Smail mentions that he saw a young Cuckoo at Burncastle, 

 Laviderdale, in the end ot August. — Hist. Ber. Nat. Cluh, vol. viii. p. 104. 



" I have known a young Cuckoo shot at Broomhouse, near Duns, as late as 

 the beginning of September. 



* Jamieson says : — "Young people, attracted by the singular cry of the Cuckoo, 

 being anxious to see it, are often very assiduous to obtain this gratification. 

 But as the bird changes its place so secretly and suddenly, when they think they 

 are just within reach of it they hear its cry at a considerable distance. Thus 

 they run from place to place, still finding themselves as far removed from their 

 object as ever. Hence the phrase ' Hunt the Gowk,' may have come to be used 

 for any fruitless attempt, and particularly for those vain errands on which 

 persons are sent on the first day of April." — Scot. Diet., Art. " Gowk." 



•* "Popular History of the Cuckoo," by James Hardy.— i^oZA; Lore Record 

 vol. ii. p. 57. 



