128 NATURAL HISTORY AND 



individual of any particular species of bird may 

 appear exactly alike, but there is often consider- 

 able variety. Song-bird fanciers know this well ; 

 but in their case it may be urged that domestica- 

 tion and care have altered and drawn out the 

 voices of their favourites, just as judicious farmers 

 improve their stock. But I take as illustrations 

 the most obtrusive and monotonous of our day and 

 night birds, and to a fine ear scarcely any two of 

 them will be found in the same key. There are 

 also prominent and exceptional points of difference 

 in the call of a particular cuckoo, as well as in 

 the hoot of an eccentric ivy owl. 



A cuckoo that haunted our garden all last 

 spring and summer, and was most useful in grub- 

 bing up the cabbage and gooseberry caterpillars, 

 put an additional note into its pipe. When a 

 neighbour cuckoo from the near hill, and another 

 from the beeches on the lawn, struck up the rub- 

 rical coo-coo, they were always replied to by. the 

 innovator's coo-coo-coo. We made him a D.D., 

 and the "Dr" had perhaps as much reason for the 

 change in his ritual as if his degree had come from 

 the Senatus of Edinburgh itself. When fishing 



