NOTES OF BIRDS. 87 



their powers, I have sometimes heard them as if 

 obliged to stop after the second or third coo. 



Birds also appear to lose their song in the same 

 gradual way in which they first acquire it. This has 

 been often remarked in the case of the cuckoo, 

 which towards the end of June is sometimes only 

 master of the first syllable of its call.* 



Birds in general are regular to their appointed 

 times for commencing and ceasing song ; but occa- 

 sionally individuals may be heard out of season. 

 I do not allude here to those species which re- 

 assume their notes in the autumn, and even during 

 the winter, if the weather be mild ; but more par- 

 ticularly to such as occasionally protract their 

 summer song beyond the usual period. Thus the 

 chaffinch, the willow warbler, and the nightingale, 

 all stop generally about, or shortly after, midsummer ; 

 the nightingale, indeed, much earlier than this ; but 

 in some years I have heard certain individuals of 

 each of these three species persevering through a 

 great part of July, and the willow wren even through 

 August and September. These are probably cases 



* According to the old lines quoted in " Observations on some 

 Passages in White's Natural History of Selborne," appended to 

 the edition of 1813, vol. ii. p. 312. 



" Use maketh maistry, thfs hath been said alway, 

 But all is not alway, as all men do say, 

 Jn Aprill, the koocoo can sing her song by rote ; 

 In June, of tune, she cannot sing a note : 

 At first, koo-coo, koo-coo, sing still can she do, 

 At last, kooke, kooke, kooke, six kookes, to one koo !" 



