CUCKOO CUCKOO. 67 



while a Lancashire saying is, " The first cock of hay frights 

 the Cuckoo away " a reference to the time of it departure. 

 In Northants. April 15th is called " Cuckoo Day." 

 Concerning the note Heywood has : 



In April the koocoo can sing her song by rote, 

 In June of tune she cannot sing a note, 

 At first koocoo, koocoo sing still she can do, 

 At last kooke, kooke, six kookes to one koo. 



The attribution of the song to the female here, must not, 

 of course, be taken literally, as the female does not sing. 

 A Yorkshire custom with children was to sing round a 

 cherry tree : 



Cuckoo, cherry tree, 



Come down and tell me 



How many years afore I dee. 



Each child then shook the tree and the number of cherries 

 falling stood for the years of its life. 



The " Cuckoo-penners " of Somerset, who believed 

 they could prolong the summer by caging cuckoos, are 

 alluded to by De Kay (" Bird Gods of Ancient Europe," 

 p. 84). 



An Irish superstition is that unmarried persons, on 

 first hearing the cuckoo, should search the ground at their 

 feet, and are certain to find a hair there which will be the 

 same colour as that of the man or woman they will marry. 

 In England in former times this belief varied somewhat, 

 the custom being for a young woman to go into the fields 

 in the early morning to hear the Cuckoo, when, if she pulled 

 off her left shoe she would find in it a hair of the exact 

 colour of her future husband's. This is alluded to by Gay 

 in the Fourth Pastoral of the " Shepherd's Week " : 

 Upon a rising bank I sat adown 

 And doffed my shoe, and by my troth I swear 

 Therein I spied this yellow frizzled hair. 



A more widely-spread custom on first hearing the call is 

 to turn the money in one's pocket, which is supposed to 

 ensure its increase. Evidently akin to this is the belief 

 in the north of England, that it is an unfortunate omen for 

 anyone to have no money in his pocket on first hearing 

 the Cuckoo, great care being usually taken to avoid such 

 an occurrence. Howitt records a . Norfolk belief that 

 whatever one is doing on first hearing the Cuckoo, that one 

 will do most frequently during the year. In Scotland it is 

 said to be unlucky, and a sign of coming misfortune, to hear 

 the Cuckoo for the first time before eating a meal. In 

 Hampshire it is considered unlucky to kill a Cuckoo, and 



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