88 THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



The cuckoo was supposed to be an infallible remedy 

 against fleas. If, when first heard, the hearer circumscribed 

 his right foot and dug up the earth around, not a flea 

 would be found wherever that earth was scattered. 



Its time of appearance has also produced innumerable 

 rhymes. One of the oldest ballads in the English language 

 is about the coming of the cuckoo : 



" Sumer is icumen in, 

 Shude sing cucu, 

 Groweth sed and bloweth med, 

 And springeth the wode nu. 



Sing cucu. 

 Awe (ewe) bleteth after lamb, 



Showth (loweth) after calve, Cu, 

 Butter sterteth, 

 Bucke verteth, 

 Music sing cucu. 



Cucu-cucu." 



Another says : 



" In March he leaves his perch, 

 In April come he will, 

 In May he sings all day, 

 In June he changes his tune, 

 In July he is ready to fly, 

 Come August go he must, 

 In September you'll him remember, 

 But October he'll never get over." 



In Derbyshire and in the north of England they have 

 the following : 



" In April cuckoo sings his lay, 

 In May he sings both night and day, 

 In June she loses her sweet strain, 

 In July she is off again." 



About the middle of June the cuckoo's note is much 

 changed ; instead of the loud, plain Cuckoo-cuckoo, we hear 

 a double first note, Cu-cuck-oo. This was noticed by John 

 Heywood, who wrote in the latter part of the sixteenth 

 century or the beginning of the seventeenth : 



