157 



THE CUCKOO. 



Cuculus canorus L. 



The Jii'st immigration of this species extended along prac- 

 tically tlie whole o£ the south coast from Cornwall to Kent 

 (April 6th-9th). The number of birds was everywhere 

 small, but they were perhaps rather more numerous in the 

 western counties than in the eastern. 



Previous to April the 15th this bird was practically con- 

 fined to the counties south of a line drawn from the Thames 

 to Lhe mouth of the Severn. After that date, though there was 

 no manifest increase in the number of birds, they gradually 

 spread in a northerly direction and by the 24th the species 

 was fairly distributed as far as Yorkshire, while a single bird 

 was recorded from Dumfries on the 21st. 



A second small immigration seems to have landed on 

 the south coast between April the 21st and 26th, and to 

 have passed north in the track of the former. 



The tliird immigration, which evidently included the main 

 body of our summer-residents, began to arrive in the west 

 on May the 1st, and during the two or three subsequent days 

 there was evidently a steady stream of Cuckoos pouring in 

 along the whole of the south coast. These birds apparently 

 passed rapidly northwards, and during the 4tb, 5th, 6th, 

 and 7th the numbers throughout the country] show a 

 gradual increase from south to north, reaching Yorkshire 

 on the 6th. 



A young bird was reported from Lancashire on May the 

 11th, a very early date, and an egg from Hampshire on the 

 17th. 



There seem to have been three other arrivals of this species, 

 on May the 17th in Sussex, and on the 11th and 19th in 



