CUCKOOS. 



met with, and which in a slightly different version 

 are given by Mr. Yarrell : 



In April Come he will ; 

 In May He sing all the day ; 

 In June He change his tune ; 

 la July Away he fly ; 

 In August Away he must. 



The double note of the male Cuckoo is known 

 to every one ; and there are few, in any degree 

 familiar with rural sounds and associations, who 

 do not feel a thrill of pleasure when it falls upon 

 their ear. But more especially when, for the 

 first time in the season, it is heard in a lovely 

 Spring morning, mellowed by distance, borne 

 softly from some thick tree, whose tender, and 

 yellow-green leaves, hjjt half-opened, are as yet 

 barely sufficient to afford the welcome stranger 

 the concealment he loves. At such a time it is 

 peculiarly grateful ; for it seems to assure us that, 

 indeed, " the winter is past, the rain is over and 

 gone ; the flowers appear on the earth, and the 

 time of the singing of birds is come." 



" Sweet bird ! thy bower is ever green, 



Thy sky is ever clear ; 

 Thou hast no sorrow in thy song, 

 No winter in thy year ! " 



The Cuckoo is a bird of much elegance : the 

 plumage of the superior parts is of a chaste bluish- 

 grey tint ; the under parts are white, marked on 

 the belly with transverse bars of grey. 



