1 6 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



wedding-bells for innumerable little songsters, 

 now married and settled and enjoying their brief 

 honeymoon amongst the cool green leaves and 

 the early blossoms. His cry unerringly foretells 

 the pageant of summer and heralds the trium- 

 phant appearance of Life in its endless forms. 

 Every now and then the big, hawk-like Cuckoos 

 chase and toy with each other as they fly from 

 tree to tree, scolding and chattering as they go ; 

 and sometimes we are quite startled by their loud, 

 hollow cry in the branches overhead, when, per- 

 chance, we are standing hidden amongst the nut 

 bushes, knee-deep in bluebells and fern. The 

 Cuckoo is bereft of all nest-building impulses, and, 

 as every naturalist knows, selects the home of some 

 other bird, and commits its egg and future offspring 

 to the care of foster-parents. A gay Lothario is the 

 Cuckoo, saddled with no parental cares, spending 

 the entire summer in gadding about, enjoying life 

 to the full, and wandering off back again to 

 Africa before the first russet-and-yellow tints steal 

 over the woods. Now the Nightingale, the 

 warblers Blackcap, the Garden Warbler, the Whitethroat, 

 April.' and other soft-billed birds also arrive in full force 

 and take up their residence in the woods and 

 gardens and hedgerows. By the end of April 

 the Corncrake is back again amongst the meadow- 

 grass and growing corn, and his monotonous cry 

 is heard all day long, and often best part of the 

 night as he wanders from field to field in quest of 

 his mate. Among the very latest birds to arrive 



