EARLY SPRING IN SAVERNAKE FOREST 219 



as the season advances. The song is sometimes 

 spelt in books : 



Coo-co6-roo, co6-coo-roo. 



A lady friend assures me the right words of this 

 song are : 



Take tmo cows, David. 



She cannot, if she tries, make the bird say 

 anything different, for these are the words she 

 was taught to hear in the song, as a child, in 

 Leicestershire. Of course they are uttered with 

 a great deal of emotion in the tone, David being 

 tearfully, almost sobbingly, begged and implored 

 to take two cows ; the emphasis is very strong 

 on the two — it is apparently a matter of the 

 utmost consequence that David should not take 

 one, nor three, nor any other number of cows, 

 but just two. 



In East Anglia I have been informed that 

 what the bird really and truly says is — 



My toe bleeds, Betty. 



Many as are the species capable of articulate 

 speech, as we may see by referring to any orni- 

 thological work, there is no bird in our woods 



