THE CUCKOO. 151 



minor scale, the origin of which has puzzled so many ; 

 the cuckoo's couplet being the minor third sung down- 

 wards. Kircher, however,* gives it thus : 



In Gardiner's " Music of Nature " it is rendered as 

 follows : 



Cue - koo, Cue - koo. 



A friend of Gilbert White's found upon trial that the 

 note of the cuckoo varies in different individuals. About 

 Selborne Wood he found they were mostly in D. He 

 heard two sing together, the one in D, the other in D 

 sharp, which made a very disagreeable duet. He after- 

 wards heard one in D sharp, and about Wolmer Forest 

 some in C. 



Gungl, in his " Cuckoo Galop," gives the note of the 

 cuckoo as B natural and G sharp. Dr. Arne, in his music 

 to the cuckoo's song in Love's Labours Lost, gives it as 

 C natural and G. 



And now "will you hear the dialogue that the two 

 learned men have compiled in praise of the owl and the 

 cuckoo ? This side is Hiems, Winter ; this Ver, the 

 Spring ; the one maintained by the owl, the other by the 

 cuckoo. 



" Ver, begin : 



* " Musurgia Universalis." 1650. p. 30. 



