96 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



a sharp, thin " quick, quick, quick-a-quick," or 

 '' kick, kick, kick-a-kick," pronounced very quickly, 

 -and in a high tone. Whether this is the note of 

 the female cuckoo only, I cannot say. I have often 

 heard it in answer to a *' cuckoo," but I am not 

 yet satisfied that even this last is uttered by the 

 male bird alone. To this point, however, 1 will 

 recur. 



Now, all the above variants of the familiar 

 "cuckoo" — the *'cook,'' "cack," " cack-a-cack," 

 *' cuc-kew-oop," &c. — I have heard both in May and 

 April, as any one else may do who will only listen. 

 But in what other way does the cuckoo ** change 

 his tune," which, according to the old rhyme, he 

 does " in June " ^ " In June he changes his tune." 

 This, at least, is what I take it to mean, and it is 

 so understood, about here. It can, I think, only 

 mean this, and if it means anything else it is 

 equally false in my experience. I think, before 

 putting faith in old country jingles of this sort, one 

 ought to remember two things. First, that ordinary 

 country people are not particularly observant, ex- 

 cept, perhaps, of one another ; and then, that, as 

 a general principle — this at least is my firm belief — 

 a rhyme will always carry it over the truth, if the 

 latter is not too preposterously outraged. Some- 

 thing, in this case, was wanted to rhyme with June, 

 as with all the other months, in which it happened 

 to come pretty pat. Oh, then, let the cuckoo 

 change his tune, for you may hear him do it then 

 as well as at another time. And many poets, too — 

 most, perhaps, now and again — led by this same bad 

 necessity of rhyming, run counter to truth in just 



