1106 The Zoologist— March, 1808. 



Then again we are told that the fate of an individual for the current 

 year depends on the direction in which he hist hears the cry of the 

 cuckoo in the spring: if it proceeds from the north, for instance, it is 

 a lucky omen ; but if from the south, it portends death.* And again 

 it is universally considered unlucky to be without money in your 

 pocket, on first hearing the welcome notes of this bird.f 



These are but samples of the many superstitions current in our day, 

 and in our own county, with regard to the cuckoo ;+ and it is with the 

 hope of substituting, in their stead, the very interesting and peculiar 

 economy of its real life-history, that I venture to introduce so simple 

 a subject. 



And then again it so happens that I have for the last year or two 

 given more attention than usual to the cuckoo, by reason of a very 

 interesting paper on the subject written in German, which has been 

 put into my hands for translation. The article to which I allude " On 

 the strange Variation in the Eggs of the Cuckoo," § was written, so 

 long as twelve years ago, by the celebrated ornithologist, Dr. 

 Baldamus, of Sluggart. The opinion which he then expressed, and 

 the theory which he built upon the facts he had accumulated with 

 reference to this subject, were published in the principal ornithological 

 periodical of Germany, the 'Namnannia' for 1823, of which the same 

 Dr. Baldamus is the talented editor. This opinion, however, has 

 never been presented to the British public in an English dress, and 

 consequently has never met with the attention in England which it 

 deserves : moreover, the rarity of meeting with the book which 

 contains it, as well as the lengthy article, and scientific German, in 

 which the author has developed his facts and his opinion, have helped 



* Lloyd's 'Scandinavian Adventures,' vol. ii. p. 347. 



f ' Naturalist' for 1852, p. 841. 



X As ihe story of hedging in the cuckoo, and so securing the permanence of 

 spring, has hecn attempted to be uffiliated on the moourukers of Wilts, I must, in 

 common honesty, quote from the veracious chronicle entitled, 'The Merry Tales of the 

 Wise Men of Gotham,' in which the following anecdote occurs: — " On a time the men 

 of Gotham would have pinned in the cuckoo, whereby she should sing all the year; 

 and in the midst of the town they had a hedge made, round in compass, and they had 

 got a cuckoo, and put her into it, and said, ■ Sing here, and you shall lack neither meat 

 nor drink all the year.' The cuckoo, when she perceived herself encompassed within 

 the hedge, flew away. ' A vengeance on her,' said the wise men ; ' we made not our 

 Ledge high enough.'" (' Sharpe's Magazine,' vol. x. p. 6.) 



§ " Neue Beitrage zur Fortpflanzungsgeschichte des Europaischen Kukkuks 

 (Cuvulus emorut)," von E. Baldamus. (* Nauuiannia,' 1853, pp. 307—320). 



