RED-LETTER DAYS AMONG BIRDS 



49 



and in my annual bird reports I have often drawn prominent 

 attention to same. 



The fact is that a Museum naturalist is not qualified to recog- 

 nise sights and sounds out-of-doors in the wild greenwood, any 

 more than the field naturalist is able to dissect a bird, or any 

 other animal, and to name and piece together the various parts 

 of which it is made up. 



To recognise a bird by its voice, and upon the wing, requires 

 years of patient and persevering toil, and I am not in the least 

 surprised that a Harpenden labourer should have successfully 

 lured the late Mr Eichard Lydekker into the belief that he (the 

 last-named) had heard the Cuckoo as early as Feburary in the 

 year 1913. 



FIG. 16. MEADOW PIPIT AND YOUNG CUCKOO. 



Why Mr Lydekker should have sent a hasty note chronicling 

 the " fact " to the Press, without making further observation 

 and inquiry, I do not know. If he had stayed his hand for a 

 few days, perchance the secret of the February Cuckoo would 

 have leaked out ! 



f I can well understand the desire on the part of any recognised 

 authority to let the ornithological world know of the appearance 

 of Cuculus canorus in the foggy days of February fill-the-dyke, 

 but surely before such was chronicled it would have been advis- 

 able (as it afterwards proved) to make further inquiries. 



The pity of it is that other scientists, taking Mr Lydekker at 



