Notes and queries. 263 



H obvious absurdity," but rather that it was " very remarkable " if true. I 

 was led to the conclusion at which I arrived not alone by the description of 

 the bird's appearance, but also by its flight and actions, which certainly in 

 one of the cases reported this spring indicated the Hawk rather than the 

 Cuckoo. So far as I know, all the rufous coloured adult Cuckoos hitherto 

 met with have been females. May I add that early in last March I heard a 

 Ring Dove — I doubt not a young and inexperienced bird practising its love 

 song for the first time — which so much resembled the cry of the Cuckoo that 

 it might readily have deceived a careless or inexperienced person. May I 

 finish with a story of a Cuckoo written, and evidently credited by, a very 

 "painful" and observant naturalist, a F.K.S., and valued correspondent of 

 Gilbert White, to a lady of rank (in fact quite a high-life story) in the year 

 1790 ? — " My very estimable neighbour, Lady Walpole," says the writer, 

 " informed me that her grandfather Hoskins, of Barrow Green, a few miles 

 from Godstone, in Surrey, at Sir W. Hoskins' in the Christmas Holydays, 

 heard a Cuckow singing in a hollow tree laid upon the fire. I am thus 

 particular in the story," he adds, " because it is uncommon." — T. South- 

 well (Norwich). 



Early Cuckoos in 1894. — Since writing my note on March Cuckoos 

 (p. 190) I received undeniable evidence of the extraordinarily early arrival 

 of the Cuckoo in North Oxon this spring. A neighbour, who is interested 

 in, and has a good knowledge of, birds, heard the Cuckoo's note at Mil- 

 combe on April 1st, at about 7.30 a.m. ; on the 2nd he saw two of these 

 birds, and on the same day an old farmer heard it at Tadmarton, and 

 remarked truly that it was three weeks or more before its usual time ; 

 several labourers heard it also. It was heard here by another farmer on the 

 5th, and by upwards of a dozen persons on the 8th. I did not happen to 

 hear it myself until the 14th ; but had I been at home on the 8th I should 

 certainly have heard it on that day, for the people in the house said a Cuckoo 

 was calling loudly all the morning. One was heard also at Kingham on 

 the 8th. The 14th is six days earlier than I ever heard it before. Is it 

 possible that the Cuckoos were deceived by a remembrance of the fine 

 warm nesting season we had last year into the belief that England really 

 had a summer, and so returned before their usual time? If so, they must 

 indeed have been woefully deceived. For the dreary, dismal May, with 

 little else but cold winds, frosts, and rain, which we have just experienced, 

 seems so far likely to be followed by an equally miserable June. — 0. V. 

 Aflin (Bloxham, Oxon). 



The following note respecting the early appearance of the Cuckoo in 

 Dumfriesshire may be of interest. On April 15th, while out walking on 

 Lochar Moss, about a mile east of Newfield Farm, I distinctly heard the 

 call of the Cuckoo. I made for the few scattered trees from whence it was 

 evident the sound proceeded, and soon caught sight of the bird perched 



