semes. 



305 



According to Mr. Mitford, " the cuckoo begins 

 early in the season with the interval of a minor 

 third, the bird then proceeds to a major third, next 

 to a fourth, then to a fifth, after which his voice 

 breaks without attaining' a minor sixth*," a circum- 

 stance long- ago remarked by John Heywood f. The 

 usual note of the cuckoo is the minor third, sung 

 downwards, thus: 



Or as Kircher gives it, 



II I 



Gu - cu, Gu - cu, Gu - cu 



But, according to White of Selborne, neither owls 

 nor cuckoos keep to one note. " A friend," he says, 

 " remarks, that many (most) of his owls hoot in B 

 flat ; but that one went almost half a note below A. 

 The pipe he tried their notes by was a common half- 

 crown pitch pipe, such as masters use for tuning of 

 harpsichords ; it was the common London pitch. A 

 neighbour of mine, who is said to have a nice ear, 

 remarks, that the owls about this village hoot in their 

 different keys, in G flat or F sharp, in B flat and A 

 flat. He heard two hooting to each other, the one 

 in A flat and the other in B flat. Query: Do these 

 different notes proceed from different species, or only 

 from various individuals? The same person finds, 

 upon trial, that the note of the cuckoo (of which we 

 have but one species) varies in different individuals ; 



* Linn. Trans, vol. vii. 



f Epigrams, Black Letter, 1587. 

 Musurgia, i. 



2D3 



