THE CUCKOO 141 



be thou not dismaied 

 For thou have herd the Cuckovv erst than me, 

 For if I live it shall amendid be 

 The nexte Maie, if I be not afraied. 



More recently Milton thus addresses the Nightingale : 



Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day, 

 First heard before the shallow Cuccoo's bill, 

 Portend success in love. 



Whether any traces of this popular belief yet linger in our rural 

 districts, I do not know ; but I can recall my childish days in the 

 west of England (where there are no Nightingales), when I looked 

 forward with implicit faith to the coming of the Cuckoo, to ' eat up 

 the dirt ', and make the Devonshire lanes passable for children's 

 spring wanderings. 



The song of the Cuckoo, I need scarcely remark, consists 

 of but two notes, of which the upper is, I believe, invariably, 

 E flat, the lower most frequently C natural, forming, however, 

 not a perfect musical interval, but something between a minor 

 and a major third. Occasionally two birds may be heard 

 singing at once, one seemingly aiming at a minor, the other 

 a major third ; the effect is, of course, discordant. Sometimes 

 the first note is pronounced two or three times, thus ' cuck-cuck- 

 cuckoo ', and I have heard it repeated rapidly many times in suc- 

 cession, so as to resemble the trilling note of the Nightingale, but in 

 a lower key. The note of the nestling is a shrill plaintive chirp, 

 which may best be imitated by twisting a glass stopper in a bottle. 

 Even the human ear has no difficulty in understanding it as a cry 

 for food, of which it is insatiable. Towards the end of June the 

 Cuckoo, according to the old adage, ' alters its tune ', which at 

 first loses its musical character and soon ceases altogether. In July 

 the old birds leave us, the males by themselves first, and the females 

 not many days after ; but the young birds remain until October. 



Referring to the young cuckoo's manner of ejecting the eggs of 

 its foster-parents, and the reason for this apparently cruel action, 

 the editor refers our readers to Mr. W. H. Hudson's interesting 

 chapter in Idle Days in Hampshire. 



