Class II. CUCKOO. 307 



their being heard in the summer time to sing at 

 midnight. There is a remarkable coincidence 

 between their song, and the season of the mack- 

 erel's continuance in full roe; that is from 

 about the middle of April, to the latter end of 

 June. 



The cuckoo is silent for some little time after 

 his arrival ; his note is a call to love, and used 

 only by the male,* who sits perched generally on 

 some dead tree, or bare bough, and repeats his 

 song, which he loses as soon as the amorous 

 season is over. In a trap, which we placed on 

 a tree frequented by cuckoos, we caught not 

 fewer than five male birds in one season. His 

 note is so uniform, that his name in all lan- 

 guages seems to have been derived from it ; and 

 in all other countries it is used in the same re- 

 proachful sense. 



The plain song cuckoo grey, 



Whose note full many a man doth mark, 



And dares not answer nay. 



Shakespeare. 



* The female never emits the well known sound which gives 

 name to the species, but often, particularly when she hears 

 the male, makes a noise not unlike the Dabchick, which at- 

 tracts the other sex, who pursue her and cry more vehemently 

 in their flight, at which time the males frequently fight near the 

 tree in which she may happen to alight. Ed. 



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