Cuckoo Calls. 



XXXVI. 



255 



Another point respecting Mr. Cuckoo Xanorus and 

 his family which is wrapped in doubt. Do the young 

 birds when they are fledged learn the'call-note of the 

 foster-parents or of their real parents, deserting abso- 

 lutely the former at this stage, after having got their 

 earlier up-bringing out of them ? This query is sug- 

 gested by the fact that, on a certain early morning 

 walk, I heard no fewer than four distinctly different 

 cuckoo-calls: (i) the ordinary cuckoo-call; (2) this 

 call in a hurried, startled, sharpened tone, as if of 

 fear or warning ; (3) a distinct and prolonged second 

 cuck, and cuck-cuck-koo-oo ; and (4) a low tentative 

 cuck-a-cuck-koo, the koo being faint and indefinite, 

 and more of the broader " a " sound. In addition to 

 the calls being different, the notes sounded varied. I 

 had never personally observed this before, and speak- 

 ing to a yeoman friend who has spent all his life in 

 the country, and has been out at all hours, and as a 

 sportsman has observed a good deal, he did not re- 

 ceive these statements of mine with surprise or as 

 suggesting anything novel, but gave it as his theory 

 that the young early broods of the cuckoo in June 

 are fledged and join older cuckoos, whether their true 

 parents or not he could not say : that the low hesitat- 

 ing cuck-a-cuck-koo, with the koo very indistinct, is 

 the note of the younger birds, and that the prolonged 

 second koo is the note of the old birds, as trainers, 

 now emphasizing that note to develop it fully in the 

 young. This is, at all events, ingenious ; it could be 

 verified only by evidence as to whether this prolonged 



