THE CUCKOO. 



87 



Cuckoo folk-lore abounds in fabulous stories: how it 

 changes, according to Aristotle and Pliny, into a bird of 

 prey a belief still extant ; some of the old gamekeepers in 

 the north of England affirm that the bird always changes 

 into a hawk in the winter. In Cambridgeshire the bird 

 is a cuckoo for three months and a hawk for nine. In 

 Bohemia the same belief exists. In Switzerland they go 

 so far as to say that the cuckoo of one year will be a 

 young eagle the next. In North Germany it becomes a 



THE CUCKOO. 



sparrow-hawk after St. John's Day, and the same legend is 

 to be found in many parts of France. In Normandy 



" Entre Juin et Juillet, 

 Le coucou devient emouchet." 



Pliny says : "If the cuckoo is wrapped in a Hare's 

 skin and applied to a patient, it will produce sleep." 

 Rondoletius tells us that its ashes are good for disorders 

 of the stomach. 



