BIRDS AND BIRDS 127 



cinnamon-brown or drab above, and bluish white 

 beneath, with a gloss and richness of texture in the 

 plumage that suggests silk. The bird has also 

 mended its manners in this country, and no longer 

 foists its eggs and young upon other birds, but builds 

 a nest of its own and rears its own brood like other 

 well-disposed birds. 



The European cuckoo is evidently much more of 

 a spring bird than ours is, much more a harbinger 

 of the early season. He comes in April, while ours 

 seldom appears till late in May, and hardly then 

 appears. He is printed, as they say, but not pub- 

 lished. Only the alert ones know he is here. This 

 old English rhyme on the cuckoo does not apply this 

 side the Atlantic : — 



"In April 

 Come he will, 

 In flow'ry May 

 He sings all day, 

 In leafy June 

 He changes his tune, 

 In bright July 

 He 's ready to fly, 

 In August 

 Go he must." 



Our bird must go in August, too, but at no time 

 does he sing all day. Indeed, his peculiar guttural 

 call has none of the character of a song. It is a 

 solitary, hermit-like sound, as if the bird were alone 

 in the world, and called upon the Fates to witness 

 his desolation. I have never seen two cuckoos to- 

 gether, and I have never heard their call answered ; 

 it goes forth into the solitudes unreclaimed. Like 



