136 THE EVIL SUMMER OF 1907 



of secondes noces. Those blackbirds and thrushes of 

 Osterley were singing presumably because their mates 

 were sitting on a second set of eggs. Are we to suppose 

 that they could sing if they chose at all seasons of the 

 year, but only do so in order to please their wives ? 



The cuckoo's is a still more perplexing case. Every- 

 body knows that his voice generally cracks before the 

 end of June, his mouth then being chronically full of 

 caterpillars. But supposing it to be in his power to 

 prolong his simple melody in order to manifest sym- 

 pathy with his spouse, so long as she is in an interesting 

 condition, how does she happen to be in that condition 

 for the second time in the same season ? The thrush, 

 beholding her clay-lined nest flooded with rain-water, 

 her blue eggs addled, or her nestlings cold and dead, 

 sets gallantly to work to build another and to rear a 

 second brood. But Madame Cuckoo belongs to the 

 smart set genus invisum. Having deposited her eggs 

 in various humble dwellings, she flies off to amuse 

 herself; I myself have met her at Sandown races, and 

 at garden and water parties. It would be interesting 

 to know whether she receives bulletins about the 

 welfare of her progeny; for if she does not, what 

 prompts her to farm out a second lot of babies ? And 

 that she is doing so seems to be indicated by the 

 prolonged loquacity of her mate. 



Birds and butterflies, being the most conspicuous 

 forms of wild life in this country, attract more attention 

 than any other creatures from amateur naturalists. 

 Butterflies are lying low, very low, until the prevailing 

 meteorological tyranny be overpast ; but birds are just 



