74 BIRD-SONGS ABOUT WORCESTER. 



to the European cuckoo. The notes of 

 both our cuckoos are very similar, consist- 

 ing of the syllables kow, kow, kow, or km, 

 km, km, km, reminding one very little of 

 the plain cuckoo, cuckoo, of the European 

 bird. Burroughs, when in England, found 

 little satisfaction in the cuckoo's note, 

 which seemed to him a gross plagiarism 

 on the cuckoo-clock. The cuckoo's note 

 has in a remarkable degree the quality 

 of remoteness and introvertedness, and 

 Wordsworth's well-known lines apply 

 equally well to our own bird : 



While I am lying on the grass 



Thy twofold shout I hear, 

 From hill to hill it seems to pass, 



At once far off, and near. 



The same whom in my school-boy days 



I listened to; the cry 

 Which made me look a thousand ways 



In bush, and tree, and sky. 



To seek thee did I often rove 

 Through woods and on the green ; 



And thou wert still a hope, a love ; 

 Still longed for, neve'r seen ! 



