62 A YOUNG CUCKOO 



"Wheel! wheel!" of the Meadow-pipit. After a 

 period of sullen taciturnity the Cuckoo suddenly 

 started up, and answering the Meadow-pipit, gave it 

 back "wneetl" for "wheel!" with the precise pitch 

 and volume of the original note. I may be allowed 

 to add that I have been accustomed from youth up 

 to the precise determination of musical values, so 

 that had I heard this note no more than once, 

 its exact equivalence would have placed beyond 

 doubt in my mind the fact that a young Cuckoo can 

 with indistinguishable precision render the note of its 

 foster-parent. H aving heard the answering note given 

 many times during the day, I have the assurance 

 not only that it can, but that it actually does so. 



It would be unseemly too readily to cast doubt 

 upon Jenner's statement that the chirp of the young 

 Cuckoo is the same whatever species of bird be its 

 foster-parent. It may indeed well be that such a 

 note later supersedes the note learned in its earliest 

 life by the young Cuckoo from its foster-parent. I 

 shall hope some day to hear it. In the meanwhile 

 I may place indubitably upon record that a young 

 Cuckoo repeats with perfect precision the call of its 

 foster-parent. It would be of much interest to have 

 it determined by observers who are also competent 

 judges of sound- values, if the note by which the young 

 Cuckoo responds to foster-parents of other species 

 than the Meadow-pipit, is also a rendering of the 

 foster-parents' own. 



The determination of this point would be of 

 interst less for its own sake than for its bearing 

 upon a larger question, There is a widely accredited 

 theory that Cuckoos are divisible into distinct clans, 



