36o RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



evidence of the fact (if it be one) than has yet 

 been suppUed. Professor Newton, in a footnote 

 to the article " Cuckoo " in the fourth edition of 

 Yarrell's British Birds (vol. ii., p. 389), remarks ; 

 "Its arrival has frequently been reported in March 

 or earlier still, but such records must be treated 

 with suspicion if not incredulity." 



Since this chapter was written, Mr J. G. Millais,. 

 writing from Horsham on April 8, 1905, re- 

 marked: — "I have always been sceptical about 

 ' March Cuckoos,' but have just been converted. 

 On April i I heard a Cuckoo calling for some time 

 in an oak tree in front of Warnham Court, Hors- 

 ham, and both heard and saw another (or possibly 

 the same) on April 2. Now this bird the Warnham 

 gardeners assured me had been calling all day on 

 March 31, and I see no reason to doubt their state- 

 ment. They all heard it, and remarked upon the 

 unusually early arrival of the bird." 



Mr James Andrews of Beaminster, Dorset, re- 

 ported the same week that the keeper on the Map- 

 perton estate in that neighbourhood informed him' 

 that he heard the Cuckoo on April i, and two other 

 men informed him that they had heard it there on 

 the previous day. 



