74 BIRD-SONGS ABOUT WORCESTER. 



to the European cuckoo. The notes of 

 both our cuckoos are very similar, consist- 

 ing of the syllables koiv, kozv, koiv, or kru^ 

 km, km, kru, reminding one very little of 

 the plain cuckoo, cuckoo, of the European 

 bird. Burroughs, when in England, found 

 little satisfaction in the cuckoo's note, 

 which seemed to him a gross plagiarism 

 on the cuckoo-clock. The cuckoo's note 

 has in a remarkable degree the quality 

 of remoteness and introvertedness, and 

 Wordsworth's well-known lines apply 

 equally well to our own bird: — 



While I am lying on tlie grass 



Thy twofold shout I hear, 

 From hill to hill it seems to pass. 



At once far off, and near. 



The same whom in my school-boy days 



I listened to; tlie cry 

 Which made me look a thousand ways 



In bush, and tree, and sky. 



To seek thee did I often rove 

 ^ Through woods and on the green ; 



And thou wert still a hope, a love; 

 Still longed for, never seen ! 



