THE CUCKOO 
WITH the single exception of the 
nightingale, bird of lovers, no other 
has been more written of in prose or verse 
than the so-called " harbinger of spring." 
This is a foolish name for a visitor that does 
not reach our shores before, at any rate, the 
middle of April. Even Whitaker allows us 
to recognise the coming of spring nearly a 
month earlier ; and for myself, impatient if 
only for the illusion of Nature's awakening, 
I date my spring from the ending of the 
shortest day. Once the days begin to 
lengthen, it is time to glance at the elms for 
the return of the rooks and to get out one 'a 
fishing-tackle again. Yet the cuckoo cornea 
rarely before the third week of April, save in 
the fervent imagination of premature heralds, 
who, giving rein to a fancy winged by desire, 
or honestly deceived by some village cuckoo 
clock heard on their country rambles, 
solemnly write to the papers announcing the 
inevitable March cuckoo. They know better 
in the Channel Islands, for in the second week 
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