RARE BIRDS 
407 
The equally brilliant Scarlet Tanager, or black- winged red-bird, 
as it is familiarly called, is found in the lower counties, though not 
numerous. 
The summer Red-bird, also, quite a tropical bird, is occasionally 
seen near New York ; we once chanced to meet quite a flock of 
them on Long Island. 
The Blue Grosbeak, and the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, both 
handsome birds, are also found in the State. 
The Crossbills, again, are seen in our northern counties. 
The Cuckoo of this part of the world is interesting from the as- 
sociations connected with the cry of the same bird in Europe — and, 
indeed, in Asia also — it is everywhere in the Old World looked 
upon as a harbinger of spring. The oldest song in the English 
language, said to date as far back as 1250, has a refrain in honor 
of this bird : 
" Sumer is ycumen in ; 
Lhude sing cuccu ; 
Groweth sed, and bloweth med, 
And springeth the wde nu : 
Sing cuccu ! 
Awe bleteth after lomb : 
Lhouth after calve cu ; 
Merrie sing cuccu, 
Cuccu, cuccu ! 
Wei singes thou cuccu, 
Ne swik thee nauer." 
The Chinese call it by much the same name as the Europeans. 
And so did the ancient Greeks. We have the bird, but it attracts 
with us comparatively little attention ; the robins, and blue- 
birds, and song-sparrows, are much more thought of; they arrive 
earlier, and are more common. The American cuckoo is much better 
