336 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE NOTE OF THE CUCKOO. 

 By A. Holte Macpherson, B.C.L., M.A., F.Z.S. 



During the spring and early summer of the present year I 

 took every available opportunity of listening to the Cuckoo. 

 Many friends kindly rendered me their assistance, the result 

 being that I obtained a mass of observations relating chiefly to 

 the pitch of the bird's voice, and to the interval which separates 

 the two notes of its familiar call. 



The Cuckoo has been the subject of so much discussion that 

 it is with some hesitation that I record the following observations. 

 No bird has had its natural history more thoroughly criticised, 

 and no bird still remains so great a mystery.* 



In this paper my remarks are confined to certain characteristics 

 of the well-known call, and I shall say nothing of the other 

 sounds which the Cuckoo utters. Nor do I intend to attack 

 the generally accepted view that the cry " Cuckoo " is confined 

 to the male bird, beyond saying that I have evidence (although it 

 does not amount to proof) that the female is occasionally respon- 

 sible for this cry. 



On analysis, my records as to the interval between the two 

 notes do not show much that is new. t They show that when the 

 bird is in full song, shortly after its arrival in England, the in- 

 terval is usually greater than the minor third, which it is popu- 

 larly supposed to sing, and is to all intents and purposes a full 

 major third. On an average the notes may be considered to be 

 approximately E and C, but of this more will be said hereafter. 

 The notes recorded have in all cases been determined by a 

 tuning-fork, pitch-pipe, or piano ; but in striking an average, 

 allowance has to be made for the difficulty in always ascertaining 

 whether the calls recorded were uttered by one or more birds, 

 for a Cuckoo will often stay for days in a comparatively small 

 area, frequently flying across from one side of it to the other. To 



- ;: Geddes and Thomson's ' Evolution of Sex ' (pp. 274-279) contains an 

 excellent criticism of the mysteries of the natural history of the Cuckoo. 



f There are some interesting remarks on the voice of the Cuckoo in 

 Gilbert White's tenth Letter to the Hon. Daines Barrington ; see also 

 Witchell's ' Evolution of Bird Song ' and Harting's ' Ornithology of Shake- 

 speare ' for further notes on the subject. 



