MAY 105 



is sure, before long, to start out from almost under 

 one's feet, from a snugly hidden nest with its dark- 

 coloured eggs. These are always of the same type, 

 while those of the tree-pipit vary immensely, red, 

 lilac or blotched like a reed-bunting's. 



All the pipits have a pretty habit of chasing and 

 playing, toying and kissing on the wing. How fond, 

 too, the Cuckoo is of heaths and rough hill-sides . These 

 abound in the insect food, such as hairy caterpillars, 

 which cuckoos prefer, and offer a large selection of 

 nests in which a cuckoo's egg, placed there "un- 

 beknown," may be palmed off upon the unsuspecting 

 proprietors. Is the imposture not sometimes detected, 

 however ? Certain it is that the cuckoo is always 

 attended by small birds, which often appear to be 

 mobbing it with indignant outcry. Country people 

 will tell us that they take it for a hawk. Each cuckoo 

 has his own domain, and great is the chasing and 

 voluble the cuckooing when a rival intrudes upon it. 

 " In June he changes his tune," as the saw has it, but 

 as a matter of fact by the middle of May many are 

 already shouting their stammering " cuck-cuckoo ! " 



The observer of shore-birds is never more busy than 

 in early May. As soon as the month comes in, we 

 hear once more the clear, rippling call-note of the 

 Whimbrel. The various plovers and sandpipers 

 which paddle about the sand-banks and muddy 

 estuaries, more especially of the east coast, are now 



