PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 



a. Distribution. During the summer months the cuckoo is generally 

 distributed throughout the Continent of Europe, reaching to well within the Arctic 



<'ir-li- .ind id mod '" tli-- North < '.qx' m S.-.imlMi.ivi.i, .mil rir.irK .is far in North 

 I; . A t.'u |..ur> .il>> stay in N<>rth-\\t Afru-.i. .mil in tin- Bnti.sh Mrs it is 



widely distributed, ranging north to the Orkneys and Shetlands, and breeding in 

 some numbers in the Hebrides. To the Froe* it is only an occasional straggler, 

 and the same is true of the Canaries and Madeira. A great part of the Asiatic 

 continent also falls within the summer range of this species, but here various allied 

 forms are also found, while recently it has been asserted that local races are to be 

 found in Corsica and the Balkan Peninsula. Further study is, however, necessary 

 before these can be accepted. The winter quarters of the cuckoo lie in Southern 

 Asia, Ceylon, the Philippines, Celebes, New Guinea, and South Africa. Here it 

 has rarely occurred in Cape Colony, and is not common in Rhodesia, Zambesia, 

 German W. Africa, Portuguese E. Africa, and Natal, but a good many have been 

 recorded from the Transvaal, so that probably the greater part of our European 

 birds winter farther north, [r. o. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A summer visitor. The immigrants arrive on the south 

 coast of England " first and chiefly on its eastern half." Records of cuckoos 

 heard in March are generally looked on with scepticism, but in early seasons 

 a few stragglers undoubtedly do appear in the south of England in the last days 

 of the month. During the first half of April a considerable number of " fore- 

 runners " regularly arrive, and the main immigration sets in about the middle 

 of that month. This continues for three or four weeks, fresh arrivals being noted 

 as late as mid-May in some seasons (cf. B. O. C. Migration Reports). On an 

 average, the first cuckoos in Yorkshire appear during the third week of April, 

 and in North Wales during the fourth week (cf. Nelson, B. of York*., 1907, 

 pp. 287-89 ; and Forrest, Fauna N. Walts, 1907, p. 204). In the inland part* of 

 Dumfriesshire the average date for the first cuckoo is about 24th April (cf. Glad- 

 stone, B. of Dumfriesshire, 1910, p. 171), but very few are recorded in Scotland 

 till the very last days of the month and the first days of May : and to the north 

 the species does not penetrate until the second week of May, as a rule (cf. Annals 

 Scot. Nat. Hist.). In Ireland, stragglers are frequently met with during the 

 first half of April, but the main influx takes place during the latter part of the 

 month : in the north-west the cuckoo is often not recorded till May (cf. Ussher 

 and Warren, B. of Ireland, 1900, p. 1 13). The adults emigrate at a very early date. 

 They leave Scotland by the last week of June, and very few are seen in any part of 

 VOL. II. 3 N 



