THE CUCKOO 



CUCULUS CANORUS 



LOCAL names in surrounding counties : 



STATUS IN BRITISH AVIFAUNA : A common and widely 

 distributed summer visitor. 



RADIAL DISTRIBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 

 PAUL'S : I scarcely like to hazard a statement as to how 

 near to Wren's masterpiece the voice of the Cuckoo has 

 been heard. I have met people who stoutly maintained 

 the early morning presence of the Cuckoo in the Temple 

 Gardens, and in St. James's Park, a little further west. 

 Without in any way wishing to cast doubt upon the 

 observation, I can state that the bird has frequently been 

 detected in Hyde Park, in Kensington Gardens, Holland 

 Park, Battersea Park, Regent's Park, and Victoria Park. 

 A little outside these limits the Cuckoo is still oftener 

 heard in such places as Peckham, Clapham, Brompton, 

 Shepherd's Bush, Kensal Rise, Kilburn, Haverstock Hill, 

 Highbury, Stoke Newington, and Clapton. Beyond the 

 six-mile radius the Cuckoo is of increasingly common 

 occurrence, and there is no rural suburb of the Metropolis 

 that at one time or another, in April, May, and June, does 

 not echo its cheerful voice. How close it actually breeds 

 to the central districts is another difficult problem to solve, 

 but it probably does so in any locality where it can find a 

 suitable nest in which to place its alien egg. The breed- 

 ing range would then be pratically coincident with the 

 distribution of the many small insectivorous birds that 

 breed within the Metropolitan suburbs. 



The Cuckoo reaches London about the middle of 

 April. For weeks before this there are usually many 

 records in the newspapers to the effect that the bird 

 has been heard in this locality or that, but they are all 

 untrustworthy, and notwithstanding all that may be said 



