THE CUCKOO. 135 



tended, and also according to the very authorities 

 which make those birds hatch the cuckoo, finished at 

 least two weeks before the cuckoo begins to be heard, 

 and that interval would just about suffice for the period 

 of incubation. But, according to the general law of 

 migratory birds, the male cuckoos should arrive before 

 the females, and the pairing should take place in this 

 country, as we are not aware of any instance in which 

 birds pair, before they arrive in the country where they 

 are to rear their broods. According to the general law 

 of all the feathered tribes, too, whether migratory or 

 not, the song of the male precedes, though we do not 

 know that it absolutely causes, the pairing. Therefore, 

 unless there is something as anomalous in the pairing 

 and fecundation of the cuckoos, as in the fostering of 

 their young, the females will not be in a condition for de- 

 positing their eggs before the beginning, or rather the 

 middle, or toward the end of May ; and that would 

 bring down the time of the fledging of their brood to 

 the middle or end of June, when the song of the male 

 ceases. As those who mention the particulars about 

 the cuckoo are not very full in the matter of dates, 

 which are of the utmost importance in natural history, 

 we can only speak from our own observation. Where 

 that was chiefly made, the birds began to sing rather 

 late, never before the first of May, and seldom till near 

 the middle ; and we never met with a young cuckoo till 

 June, nor then did we ever meet with a broken egg or 

 killed bird of any other kind that it had ejected from 

 the nest ; nor when there were two nestling cuckoos, did 

 we ever see any symptoms of that deadly feud by which 

 they are said to be actuated, till one of the birds be 



