116 



On certain Peculiarities in the 



in our own country Shakspeare utters tho same calumny. In the| 

 play of Henry IV. he makes that monarch exclaim : 



' ' And being fed by us, you used us so 

 As that ungentle gull, the Cuckoo's bird 

 Useth the sparrow : did oppress our nest : 

 Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk 

 That even our love durst not come near your sight 

 For fear of swallowing : but with nimble wing, 

 We were constrained for safety's sake to fly," 



And again in King Lear, the fool is made to say 



" The hedge sparrow fed the Cuckoo so long 

 That it had its head bit off by its young." 



Then again we are told that the fate of an individual for the cur- 

 rent year, depends on the direction in which he first hears the cry 

 of the Cuckoo in the spring : if it proceeds from the north, for 

 instance, it is a lucky omen ; but if from the south, it portends 

 death. 1 And again it is universally considered unlucky to be 

 without money in your pocket, on first hearing the welcome notes 

 of this bird. 2 



These are but samples of the many superstitions current in our 

 day, and in our own county with regard to the Cuckoo : 3 and it is 

 with the hope of substituting in their stead, the very interesting 

 and peculiar economy of its real life-history, that I venture to 

 introduce so simple a subject before so learned a society. 



And then again it so happens that I have for the last j r ear or 

 two given more attention than usual to the Cuckoo, by reason of a 



[ L Lloyds Scandinavian Adventures vol ii. p. 347.] 



Naturalist for 1852, p. 841. 



3 As the story of hedging in the Cuckoo, and so securing the permanence of 

 spring, has been attempted to be affiliated on the moonrakers of Wilts, I must 

 in common honesty quote from the veracious Chronicle entitled, " The merry 

 tales of the wise men of Gotham," in which the following anecdote occurs : " On 

 a time the men of Gotham would have pinned in the Cuckoo, whereby she should 

 sing all the year ; and in the midst of the town they had a hedge made, round 

 in compass, and they had got a Cuckow, and put her into it, and said, " Sing 

 here, and you shall lack neither meat nor drink all the year," The Cuckow 

 when she perceived herself encompassed within the hedge, flew away. A 

 vengeance on her ? said the wise men, "we made not our hedge high enough." 

 [Sharpe'e Magazine vol. x. p. 6.] 



