BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



into the " sobbing " of the nightingale. 

 There is, indeed, when we consider its life, 

 something fantastic in the hypothesis that 

 the cuckoo can know no trouble in life, 

 merely because it escapes the rigours of our 

 winter. Eternal summer must be a delight, 

 but the cuckoo has to work hard for the 

 privilege, and it must at times be harried to 

 the verge of desperation by the small birds 

 that continually mob it in broad daylight. 

 This behaviour on the part of its pertinacious 

 little neighbours has been the occasion of 

 much futile speculation ; but the one certain 

 result of such persecution is to make the 

 cuckoo, along with its fellow-sufferer, the 

 owls, preferably active in the sweet peace of 

 the gloaming, when its puny tyrants are 

 gone to roost. Much heated argument has 

 raged round the real or supposed sentiment 

 that inspires such demonstrations on the 

 part of linnets, sparrows, chaffinches, and 

 other determined hunters of the cuckoo. 

 It seems impossible, when we observe the 

 larger bird's unmistakable desire to win free 

 of them, to attribute friendly feelings to its 

 pursuers. Yet some writers have held the 

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