356 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



papers the announcement that a Cuckoo has been 

 seen or heard in March, and in 1904 correspondents 

 were bold enough to affirm that they had seen the 

 bird in February. There is, of course, no inherent 

 impossibihty in the arrival of this bird a week or 

 ten days earlier or later than its usual time. But 

 when we are asked to believe that it was seen 

 nearly two months before the average date of its 

 appearance in this country a demand is made upon 

 our credulity which it is very difficult to concede. 



From numerous observations made by competent 

 naturalists in different parts of the country it appears 

 that the average date for the appearance of the 

 Cuckoo throughout the whole of England and 

 Scotland is April 23 (St George's Day) ; for the 

 south of England, April 15; and that the earliest 

 date reported by a trustworthy observer is April 6. 

 In the north of Scotland the arrival of the Cuckoo 

 is looked for during the first days of May, fully a 

 fortnight later than in the south of England, and in 

 Ireland, according to Messrs Usher and Warren 

 {Birds of Ireland, p. 113), "the ordinary time of its 

 arrival is from April 16 to 30, through it has been 

 frequently noticed in the first half of that month 

 from the 2nd onwards." Not a word is said by any 

 of the observers quoted except the last named 

 concerning even the occasional appearance of a 

 Cuckoo in March. Some years ago, on receiving a 

 report of a Cuckoo seen in Shropshire on March 

 6, I invited the opinions of certain well-known 

 naturalists who had been observing the habits of 

 birds all their lives, with a view to ascertain whether 



