VIII 

 CONCERNING THE CUCKOO 



THE cuckoo has the distinction of being 

 one of the best known and least understood 

 of our British birds. If aU the Hterature 

 which this strange bird has inspired were collected 

 together it would form a small Ubraxy in itself. 

 Yet there is scarcely a point in connection with 

 its curious life-history which is not from time to 

 time made the subject of question and even contra- 

 diction by competent observers. The brief, mys- 

 terious visits to our shores, the sudden appearance 

 ever57where in the early spring, and disappearance 

 equally sudden when the year has but reached its 

 zenith, the shy and unsociable habits, and above 

 all the legend which from time immemorial has 

 attributed to the bird conduct both as a parent 

 and a nestling so unnatural as to be almost without 

 a parallel, all combine to give the cuckoo a place 

 in popular imagination which no other bird can 

 lay claim to. 



When the month of April reaches its teens the 

 cuckoo comes amongst us in the south of England. 

 It goes north with the advancing year, and appearg 

 generally in Scotland about the beginning of May. 



102 



