194 
NATURE NOTES 
548 . The Cuckoo. — Mr. Daubeny’s notes on the above (533) would have 
been more telling if he could have told us that he himself saw the cuckoo’s three 
eggs in the same nest, and better still, if he had seen the two birds ejected from 
the nest. I have only met one person in my life who has seen the cuckoo eject 
the egg out of the nest, after many hours of continuous watching (C. Reeves, 
living in Reigatel. I have heard the cuckoo in Malvern on August 26, as 
distinctly as I heard him this year for the first time on March 31. You cannot 
mistake the soft resonance of the note, the opposite exactly of the jarring cry. 
The only occasion I have sec 7 t the bird flying and uttering his beautiful note was 
at Malvern, where I lived in the Graham Road. I put my head out of the high 
window at the moment the bird flew very slowly above my head, and I could 
see distinctly the movement in his throat. But he often calls on the wing. 
17, Glover Road, Reigate. Harriet Bruce Blair. 
549 . Mr. C. Nicholson says (533) that he doubts whether the Latin word 
Cuculus mean a “ cuckoo,” and that in an old Latin dictionary there is no 
reference to the cuckoo under the word cuculus. 
An old, and probably our greatest, authority on the Latin language, “ Ains- 
worth,” gives as the primary meaning of cuculus — “ a cuckoo,” and he gives 
for his authority an example Cuculus cuculat (Auct. Philom. 35), literally trans- 
lated “The cuckoo cuckoos,” that is, emits the sound of cuckoo. May I 
suggest that perhaps Mr. Nicholson might have accidentally turned up the word 
Cucullus, which means a “ hood.” 
The secondary meaning of cuculus arises from the practice of the cuckoo in 
placing its progeny in the nests of other birds, to be brought up by them. The 
difference is that in the case of the birds, the mother is the party deceived, 
whereas, among human beings, the father is deceived, with the privity of the 
mother. 
The termination — us, is the common Latin termination, especially for proper 
names ; and, whatever the derivation of the word, the — us must be added at the 
end. Mr. C. Nicholson says that if the word were intended to express the bird’s 
cry, the — lus would be omitted. That would leave cucu as the word, but then 
such a termination would never be permitted in Latin. 
Mr. Nicolson also says that in the bird’s cry, the first syllable is short and 
the second long. I have frequently listened to the cry, and I should say that 
the second syllable is undoubtedly short. 
Hampstead, Peter Hastie. 
September ii, 1907. 
550 . Tits in Letter-box. — My letter-box is becoming a place of zoological 
resort on a limited scale. This year two successive broods of blue tits were 
hatched out in it and duly fledged, after which I hoped to be able to use the 
box for its legitimate purpose till next nesting-time ; but three days ago the 
servant, on going for the letters when the postman came, reported that there was 
a small queer animal with a long tail curled up in the box and fast asleep. This 
I found to be a dormouse, which had run up the paling and entered through the 
perpendicular slit. I put some cotton-wool in for its bed, with a few shelled 
nuts and some water, all of which were afterwards found to have been made use 
of. This morning, lo and behold I a second full-sized dormouse was found in the 
box. Both were fast asleep in the wool, and a <)uantity of dry leaves had also 
been brought in by them. Only a higher intelligence than human can explain 
how these two little creatures communicated with each other and formed a 
resolution to make this box their home. They can get out again whenever they 
are disposed, in the same way as they entered ; unless, like the fox in the fable, 
they became too fat ; but I cannot bring myself to quicken their departure. 
There are some human beings who would gladly sleep as easily and soundly as 
they do. 
fiuxled, Sussex, A. L. Hussey. 
September 5, 7 
551 . Habits ol the Nuthatch. — On May 20 I saw a nuthatch alight 
on the low roof of a building close to where I was standing. It ran or climbed 
nimbly about for a few seconds, and then began tearing oft' the moss growing on 
the tiles, letting it fall in large pieces into the road beneath. It did this by 
