i o 4 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



Personally, as I say, I have not made up my mind ; 

 but I incline to think that both the sexes cuckoo. 

 On one occasion, when the behaviour of a pair that 

 I was watching seemed emphatically of a sexual 

 character, the bird which I should have said was 

 the female did so, several times, in full view ; and 

 the other, I think, cuckooed also. But here, again, 

 I could not say for certain that the two were not 

 males, and that conduct, which seemed to me eager 

 and amorous, especially on the part of one bird it 

 was the other that certainly cuckooed was not, 

 really, of a bellicose character. Another pair I 

 watched for many days in succession, from soon 

 after their first arrival, as I imagine, and when not 

 another cuckoo was to be seen or heard far or near. 

 They took up their abode in a small fir plantation, 

 and were constantly chasing and sporting with one 

 another. That, at least, is what it looked like. If 

 what seemed sport was really skirmishing, then it 

 seems odd that two males should have acted thus, 

 without a female to excite them. Would it not be 

 odd, too, for two males to repair, thus, to the same 

 spot, and to continue to dwell there, being always 

 more or less together and following one another 

 about ? Though it was early in April, therefore, and 

 though we are told that the male cuckoo arrives, each 

 year, before the female, I yet came to the conclusion 

 that these birds were husband and wife. At first it 

 seemed to me that only one of them cuckooed, but 

 afterwards I changed my opinion, though the two 

 never did so at the same time, or answered each other, 

 whilst I had them both in view. This, however, 

 had they both been males, they probably would have 



