70 BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 



117. SITTA EUROP.EA, Leach. Nuthatch. 



Extremely rare in North Lincolnshire,, and equally 

 so in Holderness. Mr. Boulton writes me that " four 

 or five years since a nest with eggs was taken in the 

 Burton Bushes, Westwood, Beverley. The species, 

 however, is very scarce here." 



INSESSORES SCANSORES. CUCULIDM. 



118. CUCULUS CANORUS, Linnaeus. Cuckoo. 

 Provincial. Gowk (Swedish, Gok). 



This, the most familiar of our spring visitants, 

 arrives about the third week in April ; the earliest 

 arrival noted by me during the last ten years was on 

 the 14th, the latest on the 30th of that month. Much 

 depends on the nature of the season ; a cold back- 

 ward spring with a prevalence of easterly winds always 

 delays their appearance. A change in the direction 

 of the wind about the second or third week in the 

 month from N. or E. to S. or S.W. is certain to 

 bring them northward. The Cuckoo leaves us again 

 early in August ; the young later in the season, 

 some even remaining quite up to the end of Septem- 

 ber. The vicinity of low swampy plantations, and 

 willow-beds or rank aquatic vegetation bordering 

 streams with a sprinkling of alder bushes, are the 

 favourite haunts of the Cuckoo. They are much more 

 plentifully distributed during the summer in all our 

 low -lying districts than on the "Wolds," and gene- 

 rally in pairs, male and female together. 



