THE CUCKOO. 89 



" In April, the koocoo can sing her song by rote, 

 In June of tune she cannot sing a note ; 

 At first koo-coo koo-coo, sing still she can do, 

 At last kooke-kooke-kooke, six kookes to one koo." 



Among other bad habits, she is accused of sucking eggs. 

 Francis Quarles says : 



" The idle cuckoo, having made a feast 

 Of sparrows' eggs, layes down her own i' the nest." 



Rennie says that the cuckoo, by placing her eggs in 

 the other birds' nests, annually destroys 3,500,000 of their 

 eggs. The old nursery song says the male bird does so 

 for a special purpose : 



" He sucks little birds' eggs 

 To make his voice clear." 



In Denmark the reason why this bird makes no nest is 

 thus accounted for : " When, in early spring, according to 

 Mr. Horace Marryat ('Jutland and the Danish Isles'), the 

 voice of the cuckoo is first heard in the woods every vil- 

 lage girl kisses her hand and asks the question, ' Cuckoo, 

 cuckoo, when shall I be married ? ' And the old folks, 

 borne down with age and rheumatism, inquire, ' Cuckoo, 

 when shall I be released from this world's care ? ' The 

 bird, in answer, continues singing Cuckoo as many times 

 as years will elapse before the object of their desires will 

 come to pass. But as some old people live to an advanced 

 age, and many girls die old maids, the poor bird has so 

 much to do in answering the questions put to her, that the 

 building season goes by and she has no time to make her 

 nest, but lays her eggs in that of the hedge-sparrow " 

 (Swainson, " Provincial Names of British Birds "). 



The cuckoo is also invested with all kinds of power for 

 good or evil, luck or ill-luck. Macgillivray says : " In the 

 Hebrides, and other parts of the west of Scotland, if the 

 cuckoo is first heard by one who has not broken his fast, 

 some misfortune is sure to occur. The same sort of thing 

 is believed also in France ; and in Germany if a person 

 hears a cuckoo before his first meal, it entails hunger for a 



