218 HISTORY OF 



opinion that they remain torpid during the win- 

 ter at home, Willoughby introduces the following 

 story, which he delivers upon the credit of ano- 

 ther. " The servants of a gentleman in the coun- 

 try, having stocked up, in one of their meadows, 

 some old dry rotten willows, thought proper, on a 

 certain occasion, to carry them home. In heat- 

 ing a stove, two logs of this timber were put into 

 the furnace beneath, and fire applied as usual. 

 But soon, to the great surprise of the family, was 

 heard the voice of a cuckoo, singing three times 

 from under the stove. Wondering at so extraor- 

 dinary a cry in winter time, the servants ran and 

 drew the willow logs from the furnace, and in 

 the midst of one of them saw something move ; 

 wherefore, taking an axe, they opened the hole, 

 and thrusting in their hands, first they plucked 

 out nothing but feathers; afterwards they got 

 hold of a living animal, and this was the cuckoo 

 that had waked so very opportunely for its own 

 safety. It was, indeed," continues our historian, 

 " brisk and lively, but wholly naked and bare of 

 feathers, and without any winter provision in its 

 hole. This cuckoo the boys kept two years af- 

 terwards alive in the stove; but whether it re- 

 paid them with a second song, the author of the 

 tale has not thought fit to inform us." 



The most probable opinion on this subject is, 

 that as quails and woodcocks shift their habita- 

 tions in winter, so also does the cuckoo ; but to 

 what country it retires, or whether it has been 

 ever seen on its journey, are questions that I am 

 wholly incapable of resolving. 



