80 
larger end, and with this description of 
ours Latham seems exactly to agree. 
The male Cuckow visits us early in the 
spring, of which it is always greeted as 
the welcome harbinger; its w r ell-known 
Cry is generally heard about the middle of 
April, and ceases in the latter end of 
June. The female does not arrive till 
a short time after the male, and remains 
with us a few weeks later, and some of the 
younger birds even remain with us for 
some time after the old birds have left this 
country. We are told that the note of 
this bird has been heard at midnight, as 
also that it has been heard in the depth of 
winter, when the weather happened to be 
finer than usual; we are confident those 
authors did not intend to mislead, but as 
it is well known that almost any plough 
boy can imitate the note of this bird, we 
should suspect that they have been de- 
ceived by some such means. The Poet 
seems to have been of the same opinion, 
"The school boy wandering in the wood 
To pull the flowers so gay, 
Starts — the new voice of spring to hear, 
Aud imitates thy lay." 
