90 
G. HOOPER-NOTES ON BIRDS 
April; * Mr. Hopkinson heard it at St. Albans on the 22nd. The 
swallow was first seen on the 7th, and the yellow wagtail on the 
14th. Miss Selby, however, saw a pair of swallows on the 1st of 
April, an unusually early date, but, as is frequently the case, they 
disappeared directly afterwards. These birds were, as a rule, both 
scarce and late last year. In Scotland the first I saw was on the 
3rd of May. The chiffchaff, the earliest of our summer visitants, 
was heard on the 12th of April. 
Cuckoos were unusually numerous. Young cuckoos were hatched 
in all directions about here; two I heard of at Cassiobury, one at 
High Elms, one in my own garden, and very many others. The 
cuckoo is a plain-spoken, trustworthy bird, but more fibs are told 
about him than of any other bird I know. “ Cuckoo tales” were 
unusually rife last year—mostly untrue, though not intentionally so. 
Two gamekeepers deposed to having found their nests , and one of 
them actually saw the old bird sitting on its nest. Gamekeepers 
are not ornithologists, and I have little doubt but that they mistook 
the goatsucker ( Caprimulgus ) for the cuckoo, to which the bird 
bears some resemblance. A writer in the ‘ Times’ heard the bird’s 
familiar cry in the depth of winter; another saw the bird fly out 
of a log of wood brought in for burning at Christmas, and heard 
him cry “Cuckoo.” The first correspondent did not pretend to 
have seen the bird, and, considering how easily the familiar note is 
imitated, no great weight need be given to the report. The other 
story was a simple hoax. Besides that a cuckoo could not live for 
a day in this climate in the winter, he certainly would not cry 
“ Cuckoo ” if he did ; that “ wandering voice ” is hushed in June, 
or at the latest in July. 
Another old story was raked up, and found admission into several 
papers, that the cuckoo assimilates the colour of her egg to that of 
the bird’s in whose nest she lays it! This is nonsense. The colour 
of the cuckoo’s egg, generally a dark olive-green, no doubt varies 
considerably; it is sometimes blue and sometimes spotted: but she 
has neither power nor choice in the matter of colour; nor does the 
bird in whose nest the egg is laid observe or regard the similarity 
or otherwise to its own eggs. That laid in my garden was in a 
hedge-sparrow’s nest, and was not blue, but spotted, almost like 
that of the common sparrow. The one at High Elms was in a 
wagtail’s nest, and was described to me as dark green in colour. 
I am certain that, whatever the colour, the cuckoo had no choice 
in the matter, nor would the foster-mother make the colour of the 
egg any objection to its admission into the family circle. 
Of curious birds Mr. Lewis records a partially white blackbird, 
and a white-headed young cuckoo. Mr. Smith wrote that he had 
observed a “pied rook” on his farm. This was the saddle-back, 
hooded, or Boyston crow ( Conus cornix), a first cousin of the 
carrion crow, with whom he occasionally intermarries, when the 
* “ The arrival of the cuckoo was reported to me from Buntingford on the 12th 
of April. Its call was heard by Mr. Arthur Dickenson on the 13th of April near 
Batch Wood, St. Albans.”— II. Lewis. 
