CONCERNING THE CUCKOO 103 



One of the first things which attract the attention 

 of every observer of the habits of the bird is the 

 manner in which it distributes itself over every 

 variety of country in these annual invasions. Other 

 migrants have their favourite haunts : the nightin- 

 gale seeks the copses of the southern counties ; the 

 lark and plover the open moors; the swallow the 

 pastures, open waters, and the haunts of men ; 

 the mud-flats, the deep woods, and the rocky places 

 have each their special habitues. But the cuckoo 

 is to be found nearly ever57where. It takes the 

 woods of Hampshire as familiarly as the trim poplars 

 of the Continent, and it spreads itself over hill, 

 dale, and open country indiscriminately. The cuckoo 

 is common round the fringes of London, apparently 

 because of the presence of the numerous thickets 

 in which it delights ; but it remains where trees 

 and even hedgerows fail, for it may be seen in the 

 bare mountain-limestone country, with not a bush 

 in sight, flying familiarly from stone to stone and 

 making the rocks echo with its well-known call. 



The cuckoo cannot properly be viewed from one 

 standpoint. All its habits form part of a single 

 study. Even this apparently incidental question 

 of wide distribution and adaptation to diverse 

 localities is probably intimately associated with the 

 other unusual habits of the bird, and must be con- 

 sidered in connection with them. 



Of the actual existence of the most widely reputed 

 habit of the cuckoo, that which has led to the 

 popular estimation of the bird as a monster of 

 treachery and immorality, there can now be no 

 possible doubt. The tradition respecting it is of 

 great antiquity ; but, unlike most traditions in 



