170 THE CUCKOO. 



unfailing instinct implanted in her nature, where 

 to seek a supply of her wants ; and the bird whose 

 nest she selects is, by a similar wonderful instinct, 

 inclined to feed and cherish the stranger thus in- 

 truded upon her. 



Cuckoos may be heard from April to the end of 

 June, when they generally cease to sing; but they 

 do not leave this country till the beginning or 

 middle of September. The early cold, and the 

 scarcity of insects and soft fruits, drive them to 

 seek refuge in warmer climates. They take their 

 flight at this season to the fruitful islands of the 

 Grecian Archipelago, and into Africa; from 

 whence they come back to us in the spring, and 

 again cheer us with their well-known song. 



Cuckoos are not usually seen in numbers, but 

 such congregations sometimes occur. A friend 

 of ours had, for many years, an aged apple-tree 

 in his orchard, which he was wont to call the 

 cuckoo-tree. Every spring this particular tree 

 was visited, not by a solitary bird, but by per- 

 fect flocks of cuckoos, who flew around it or 

 rested on its branches, making an extraordinary 

 uproar; mixing with their well-known cuckoo 

 notes various strange cries and croakings, and 

 altogether producing a very uncommon sort of 

 concert. Day after day, for about a week after 

 their arrival in England, they visited the apple- 



