BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



of April, and not before, there are cuckoos in 

 every bush hundreds of exhausted travellers 

 pausing for strength to complete the rest of 

 their journey to Britain. Not on the return 

 migration in August do the wanderers as- 

 semble in the islands, since, having but 

 lately set out, they are not yet weary enough 

 to need the rest. The only district of England 

 in which I have heard of similar gatherings 

 of cuckoos is East Anglia, where, about the 

 time of their arrival, they regularly collect in 

 the bushes and indulge in preliminary 

 gambols before flying north and west. 



Cuckoos, then, reach these islands about 

 the third week of April, and they leave us 

 again at the end of the summer, the old birds 

 flying south in July, the younger generation 

 following three or four weeks later. Goodness 

 knows by what extraordinary instinct these 

 young ones know the way. But the young 

 cuckoo is a marvel altogether in the manner 

 of its education, since, when one comes to 

 think of it, it has no upbringing by its own 

 parents and cannot even learn how to cry 

 " Cuckoo ! " by example or instruction. Its 

 foster-parents speak another language, and 

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