loS ROUND THE YEAR 



April 22. We have now several Cuckoos in our 

 valley, the males as yet greatly predominating. The 

 males are more fixed in their abode than the 

 females, which rove a good deal and pick up several 

 mates. 



May 20. A Cuckoo's egg found in a Wagtail's 

 nest. The small Birds are certainly afraid of the 

 Cuckoo, who pursues them as if to see where they are 

 going to lay. The Hawk-like appearance no doubt 

 adds to the terror which the Cuckoo inspires. 



We have few memoirs on the habits of Birds more 

 interesting than Dr. Jenner's Observations on the 

 Natural History of the Cuckoo, published in the 

 Philosophical Transactions for 1788. 



Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination, was a man of 

 varied tastes and acquirements. He was accomplished 

 in music and studied Natural History with diligence 

 and success. In this subject he had the advantage of 

 instruction by a first-rate master, John Hunter, in 

 whose house he lived for two years, and to whom he 

 addressed, for communication to the Royal Society, 

 his memoirs on the Cuckoo. In 1788 Jenner was 

 thirty-nine years old, and practising medicine at 

 Berkeley. During the same year he came up to 

 London, in order to make known his views as to the 

 relation between cow-pox and small-pox, which were 

 coldly received by the great physicians. His first 

 case of successful vaccination was still some years in 

 the future (1796). 



At one time it had seemed likely that Jenner might 

 become a professed naturalist. He had been em- 

 ployed, probably on Hunter's recommendation, to 



