BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND loi 



hesitate when they come to look for a moral in the joyous 

 life of the "plain-song cuckoo gray." That it eats hairy 

 caterpillars which no other bird dares to swallow for fear 

 of choking, is certainly a point in its favour, and its ever- 

 welcome " spring-delighting " voice is another. But neither 

 its song, "its two old notes," nor its consumption of "woolly 

 bears," gives human reason a sufficient explanation of its 

 unique iniquity, or justifies its gay enjoyment of a life of 

 perpetual summer without any responsibilities. The Psalmist, 

 seeing " the wicked flourish," broke out into bitter song ; so 

 might the poor hedge-sparrow and the pipit. 



With the cuckoo come many birds from abroad, and all 

 of them welcome, for they fill our gardens and woodlands 

 with varied song, and wage unremitting war upon our insect 

 pests. 



There are not. probably, many people who notice either 

 their coming or their going, for spring and winter are sup- 

 posed to be sufficient explanation in themselves for the 

 commencement and cessation of sonQf. Even those who 

 have gardens do not always notice the litde singing-birds from 

 abroad, for their plumage is very modest in colour, their 

 habits are shy and retiring, and their songs always sung from 

 the cover of some brake of fern or bramble, some seques- 

 tered corner where only the vagabond butterfly catches sight 

 of them as it goes flickering to and fro in its quest of flowers. 



Both garden-warbler and blackcap are more often heard 



