302 Wonders of the Bird World 



certain, but whether they are in the proportion of twenty 

 to one, as has been suggested by some field naturalists, 

 seems to me doubtful ; but that there may be six or 

 seven males to every female I regard as very probable. 

 The female bird seldom cries ' cuckoo,' and speaks in a 

 different key, with a much higher note than the deep 

 utterance of the male. It is the latter bird that we hear 

 in the spring, for the female is much more silent, and when 

 she does utter her love-cry, it is totally unlike that of the 

 male, and is in fact a rapidly repeated Kwik-Kwik- Kivik ! 

 which has been likened to water-bubbling. It is sufficient 

 to set every male in the vicinity calling with all his might, 

 and to the tree where the female sits the}' come one after 

 the other, and often a fierce fight takes place in the upper 

 branches for the favours of the fair one. I have seen two 

 males pursuing a female in broad daylight, but it is in the 

 evening that the courting is chiefl)' to be obserx-ed. I well 

 remember the occasion when, in the twilight, a hen Cuckoo 

 settled in an elm-tree above my head and uttered her 

 peculiar note. At least five males answered from differ- 

 ent directions, and that some of them flew at once to the 

 tree where the hen-bird was, appeared certain from the 

 scuffling and fighting which ensued, though the darkness 

 prevented my seeing them. 



That the old birds leave before the young ones seems to 

 be also an absolute fact, for the latter are always found 

 travelling alone, or in company with other young birds of 

 their own species, and they complete their moult before 

 they go, if one may judge from a specimen which flew 

 against the windows of the Natural History Museum the 

 other day and killed itself It was moulting from the 

 mottled stage of the nestling to the first full plumage of the 

 young bird. 



Specimens of the old birds are in the National Collection 

 from the following localities, showing clearly where the 



