94 
that they were silent during the dog days, 
and that the soil whereon a person's right 
foot rested, who first heard the Cuckow's 
note, was a preventative against fleas and 
vermin. In Germany, and in many parts 
of England, it is confidently maintained 
that the number of times the Cuekow 
sounds his note when first heard in the 
spring, will exactly correspond with the 
number of years the person has to live 
who hears it; in other places that the 
number of times when heard by an un- 
married person foretels the number of 
years he or she will remain single. But 
the most ridiculous is the belief that the 
Cuekow is nothing else than a little 
sparrow-hawk metamorphosed; that this 
change is effected every year at a stated 
period ; that when it appears in the spring, 
it is conveyed on the shoulders of a kite, 
which, to assist the weakness of its winds' 
is so obliging as to carry it; that it dis- 
charges upon plants its saliva, which 
proves pernicious to them by engendering 
insects; that the female takes care to lay 
into each nest, an egg like those before 
