THE CUCKOO PLAY 93 



whilst cuckoos seem to prefer the more grassy 

 expanse, flying about it from one lonely bush or 

 tree to another, and down a wild-grown hedge that 

 tops a raised bank on one side, running from a 

 tangled plantation standing sad and sombre on the 

 distant verge. Beyond, and all around, is the moor- 

 land ; whilst nearer, through a reedy line, the slow 

 river creeps to the fenlands. I have seen sights, 

 here, to equal many in spots better known for their 

 beauty, not meaning to undervalue these ; but as 

 long as there is sun, air, and sky, one may see 

 almost anything anywhere. Take an early May 

 morning — fine, but as cold as can be. Though the 

 sun is brilliant in a clear, blue sky, the earth is yet 

 white with frost, and over it hang illuminated mists 

 that rise curling up, like the smoke from innumerable 

 camp-fires. A rabbit, sitting upright with them all 

 around him, looks as though he were warming his 

 paws at one, and cuckoos, flitting through the misty 

 sea, appearing and fading like the shades of birds 

 in Hades, make the effect quite magical. Nature's 

 white magic this — oh short, rare glimpses of a real 

 fairyland, soon to be swallowed up in this world's 

 great tedium and commonplace ! It is in the after- 

 noon, however, from 5 o'clock or thereabouts, and 

 on into the evening, that the cuckoo playground is 

 best worth visiting. Quite a number of cuckoos — 

 a dozen sometimes, or even more — now fly continu- 

 ally from bush to bush, or sit perched in them, 

 sometimes two or more in the same one. They fly 

 irregularly over the whole space, and, by turns, all 

 are with one another, and on every bush and tree 

 that there is. Two will be here, three or four there, 



