25o Calls and Voting Ctickoo Birds. 



The following are Mr. Campbell's notes : 



A CAPTIVE CUCKOO. 



" One day last summer, while in Mr. Cochrane's 

 bird shop in Market Street, Edinburgh, I was sur- 

 prised to see a cuckoo disporting itself in a cage 

 quite at home. As it has always been a debated 

 question whether a bird with so strong a migratory 

 instinct as a cuckoo would long survive captivity, I 

 was much interested in the specimen and naturally 

 desirous of knowing something more of its history. 

 There is, of course, always a feeling against keeping 

 any wild bird in confinement, but, given proper treat- 

 ment, there is much that may be said in favour of 

 making pets of our own wild birds that does not 

 apply in equal measure to birds imported from abroad. 



" In August, 1894, there was some correspondence 

 in the Scotsman as to the late occurrence of the 

 cuckoo in Scotland, and I then stated that I had 

 every reason to believe that a belated specimen of 

 the cuckoo was seen in the woods of Moredun, in 

 Argyllshire, as late as December, the weather being 

 that year exceptionally mild. Another correspondent 

 wrote saying he did not believe this, and quoted from 

 Mr. Speedy's book, Craigmiliar and its Environs, as 

 proving that our climate is incom.patible with the 

 existence of the cuckoo in winter, and the bird Mr. 

 Speedy describes in that interesting book did not 

 survive beyond October ; but Mr. Cochrane's pet 

 had already survived two winters. In the cold 

 weather it is taken from the shop to Mr. Cochrane's 

 house, where I went to see it a few nights ago. 

 When I entered the house, the cuckoo was perched 



