BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 
into the " sobbing " of the nightingale. 
There is, indeed, when we consider its life, 
something fantastic in the hypothesis that 
the cuckoo can know no trouble in life, 
merely because it escapes the rigours of our 
winter. Eternal summer must be a delight, 
but the cuckoo has to work hard for the 
privilege, and it must at times be harried to 
the verge of desperation by the small birds 
that continually mob it in broad daylight. 
This behaviour on the part of its pertinacious 
little neighbours has been the occasion of 
much futile speculation ; but the one certain 
result of such persecution is to make the 
cuckoo, along with its fellow-sufferer, the 
owls, preferably active in the sweet peace of 
the gloaming, when its puny tyrants are 
gone to roost. Much heated argument has 
raged round the real or supposed sentiment 
that inspires such demonstrations on the 
part of linnets, sparrows, chaffinches, and 
other determined hunters of the cuckoo. 
It seems impossible, when we observe the 
larger bird's unmistakable desire to win free 
of them, to attribute friendly feelings to its 
pursuers. Yet some writers have held the 
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