CUCKOO. 109 



such a statement as this of a fact, repeatedly witnessed, 

 cannot be lightly received by an impartial and unwarped 

 judgment. But it is further corroborated by another recorded 

 instance. The Rev. Mr. Wilmot, of Morley, near Derby, wrote 

 Dr. Darwin word of the occurrence of a similar fact: In the 

 month of July, 1792, he was attending some labourers on a 

 farm, when one of them told him that he had observed a 

 bird 'exactly like a Cuckoo' sitting upon a nest. This it 

 must be observed is a third evidence, all three deponents 

 being perfectly unprejudiced and unbiassed. The Rev. Mr. 

 Wilmot proceeds: 'He took me to the spot; it was in an 

 open fallow ground. The bird was upon the nest; I stood 

 and observed her some time, and was perfectly satisfied it 



was a Cuckoo In the nest .... I observed three eggs. As 



I had labourers constantly at work in that field, I went 

 thither every day, and always looked if the bird was there, 

 but did not disturb it for seven or eight days, when I was 

 tempted to drive it from the nest; and found two young 

 ones that appeared to have been hatched for some days, but 

 there was no appearance of the third egg.' This circumstance 

 also, is in some degree confirmatory. The other egg may 

 have been that of the original framer of the nest, for we 

 need not suppose with Dr. Fleming, from the previous instance, 

 that the Cuckoo sometimes makes a nest for herself. 'I then 

 mentioned this extraordinary circumstance, for such I thought 

 it, to Mr. and Mrs. Holyoake, of Biclford Grange, Warwick- 

 shire, and to Miss M. Willes, who were on a visit at my 

 house, and who all went to see it.' Three more witnesses 

 let it be observed. 'Very lately I reminded Mr. Holyoake of 

 it, who told me he had a perfect recollection of the whole, 

 and that considering it a curiosity, he walked to look at 

 it several times, and was perfectly satisfied as to its being a 

 Cuckoo.' 



The note of the Cuckoo, uttered both when flying and 

 perched in trees, is expressed by its name. It is often how- 

 ever, varied from the plain 'cuckoo,' to a quicker 'cuckoo; 

 cuckoo; cue-cue -koo.' Both the male and female birds utter 

 it, but the latter, it may be, only seldom; though I am 

 inclined to think that it is equally common to both. They 

 have besides another soft note, rendered by the syllables 'cule, 

 cuk'.' uttered rapidly, and continually repeated several times; 

 another exclamation of anger, and another more like the bark 

 of a little dog: the young bird has a plaintive chirp. The 



