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ROMANCE OF THE CUCKOO. 
E. P. BUTTERFIELD. 
Since writing the notes on the Cuckoo ( The Naturalist, March and 
April, 1918), this bird has received a fair share of attention from ornith- 
ologists. 
In studying the habits of the Cuckoo, it should be remembered that 
no two individuals are in all their habits alike, and it . is to be feared 
that many writers fall into the error of assuming that because one or 
two Cuckoos possess certain habits, these apply to Cuckoos in general. 
There are yet many problems in the economy of the Cuckoo which 
remain to be solved . one is, whether the cry * Cuckoo 5 is common to 
both sexes ? Many, perhaps nearly all, naturalists have held, and 
still hold, the belief that the well-known call is confined to the male,, 
but for many years I have had a belief, on good evidence, that at least 
occasionally the female does utter the call notes. In The Daily Mail 
for the 1st April I saw a letter by Major Clarke, Malmsbury, in which he 
states : ' Some fifty years ago my grandfather shot a Cuckoo which 
was flying overhead and crying “ Cuckoo ” as it flew. I picked up the 
bird, nearly dead— it died in my hand, and as it was dying it laid an 
egg in my hand/ and I have recorded a very similar occurrence for this 
neighbourhood . 
Mr. J. Whitaker, in The Countryside for 1914, page 422, states : 
‘ I am sure both sexes call ‘ Cuckoo.’ I have a record by a lady who- 
mentions a Cuckoo having been shot in the act, of singing, and on dis- 
section it proved to be a female. 
I could give many instances in which naturalists state that they 
have heard Cuckoos cry ' Cuckoo,’ and immediately after utter the 
bubbling notes, so characteristic of the female bird. 
The March. Cuckoo, is almost universally termed a ‘ March myth,’ at 
least by British naturalists. The late Lord Lilford, in The Zoologist 
for 1894, wrote : ‘ I have not as yet even seen a Cuckoo that was even 
supposed to have been obtained in this .country before April ; till I have 
seen a specimen positively sworn to by a competent person as so obtained, 
I shall remain as at present incredulous.’ 
In The Field for April 20th, 1907, Mr. F. W. Frohawk gave a record 
of a Cuckoo near Hereford on 29th March, 1907, which seems to be reliable. 
In The Yorkshire Weekly Post for February 25th, 1911, there is a record 
of a Cuckoo having been found dead in Oxfordshire on the 1st April, and 
presumably alive on the 31st March ; and in The Countryside for 1914. 
(page 614), Mr. Arthur Goodier writes : ‘ I have myself seen a Cuckoo 
on the last day of March this year (1914), and in order to prove this I 
went in the proximity of the sound, and on nearing the spot, the Cuckoo 
flew from an elm tree. In the Birds of Scilly , which is a few miles 
outside of Britain, Dorrien -Smith, a reliable authority, saw the Cuckoo 
on St. Mary’s on the 29th March, 1904, and two other persons saw it on 
April 2nd, in the same year, presumably near the same place. 
The Rev. P. A. Keating, of Waterford, Ireland, in The Countryside 
for 29th February, 1908, recorded that on 12th February, 1908, he heard 
the Cuckoo twice. On the 13th he heard it again, about 3 p.m., in the 
same locality. There were no persons about to imitate the voice, and. 
even if they were, a trained ear could not be deceived. I have been an 
observer of bird -life for over forty years, and this, needless to say, is 
my earliest record. I may say, in passing, that Mr. Keating had seen a. 
swallow in Co. Wexford on the 10th February in the same year. 
In British Birds, January, 1921, page 184, Mr. J. Freeman states that 
he saw a Cuckoo at Queniborough, Leicestershire, on the 31st March, 
1920. Mr. George Bolam, in British Birds for March, 1917, page 247,. 
1922 July 1 
