Wizard Cuckoos 63 



The cuckoo's cries provide the most striking 

 example of the development and decay of summer 

 song. Though the old rhyme hardly exaggerates 

 when it says that " in May he sings all day," it is 

 far less correct in the following statement that " in 

 June he changes his tune." It is true that the cuc- 

 koo's treble note " cuck-cuck-oo " is heard more 

 often as summer goes on ; but it sometimes occurs 

 at the very beginning of the season, while the ordi- 

 nary double note, which is the full spring song, is 

 sometimes its last note heard. Every variety of the 

 cuckoo's cry is uttered when a hen bird, perched in 

 a single tree or copse, calls up one or two of the 

 cocks. This happens most often on some fine May 

 evening, and the tumult is immense. The hen 

 cuckoo utters a loud, bubbling cry, sounding like air 

 expelled from a tube filled with water ; and the cock 

 birds reply to this with a storm of the full cuckoo 

 notes, interspersed with all the broken varieties of 

 the same cry which are heard in later summer. The 

 notes range from the full " cuckoo " delivered with 

 the utmost vigour, through the " changed tune " 

 of " cuck-cuck-oo " and " cuck-cuck-cuckoo " to a 

 harsh gabble of " cack-cack-cack," repeated in- 

 definitely. The cock birds are flying excitedly to 

 and fro, now put to flight by a chance alarm, and 

 now recalled by a new outburst of bubbling from 

 the hen bird. When the gabbling note of the cock 

 cuckoo is uttered in a low tone as the bird comes 

 hastening up, it sounds like the cackling laugh of 

 the magpie heard two or three hundred yards away. 

 All the cries of the cuckoo during the whole season 



