Cuckoo- Calls. 133 



(2) this call, in a hurried, startled, sharpened tone, as 

 if of fear or warning; (3) a distinct and prolonged 

 second koo cuck-koo-koo-oo ; and (4) a low, tentative 

 cuck-a-cuck-koo, the koo being faint and indefinite, and 

 more of the broader a sound. In addition to the calls 

 being different, the notes sounded varied. I had never 

 personally observed this before, and speaking to a 

 yeoman friend, who has spent all his life in the 

 country, and has been out at all hours, and as a 

 sportsman has observed a good deal, he did not 

 receive these statements of mine with surprise or as 

 suggesting anything novel, but gave it as his theory 

 that the young early broods of the cuckoo in June 

 are fledged, and join older cuckoos, whether their 

 true parents or not he would not say ; that the low 

 hesitating cucka-ctick-koo, with the koo very indistinct, 

 is the note of the young birds, and that the prolonged 

 second koo is the note of the old birds, as trainers, 

 now emphasising that note to develop it fully in the 

 young. This is, at all events, ingenious : it could 

 only be verified by evidence as to whether this 

 prolonged second koo is definitely heard at periods so 

 early as to make it impossible that it could be due 

 to the circumstances to which he attributes it. He 

 quoted an old saw which lingers in some parts of the 

 country, and is common in our district : 



" April cuckoo come, 

 May he sounds his drum, 

 June he changes tune; 

 July he may fly, 

 August he must." 



My friend averred that, so far as his broad observa- 

 tion went, these old saws generally had a basis in fact. 

 Whatever may be doubtful about the cuckoo, there is 



