50 
THE CUCKOO. 
to all species of the genus cuckoo. An American species 
builds a nest for itself, and hatches its own eggs. 
The habits of our English bird must always be as 
much a marvel to us as its remarkable voice. 
“He knows me, as the blind man knows the cuckoo, 
By the bad voice.” 
Merchant of Venice , Act v. Sc. i. 
“ The plain song cuckoo gray, 
Whose note full many a man doth mark, 
And dares not answer, nay— 
for, indeed, who would set his wish to so foolish a 
bird ? who would give a bird the lie, though he cry 
‘cuckoo ’ never so ?”—Midsummer Night's Dream , Act iii. 
Sc. i. 
This passage always brings to our recollection those 
beautiful lines which Wordsworth addressed “To the 
Cuckoo,” and which must be so well known to all. 
The cuckoo, as long ago remarked by John Hey wood,* 
begins to sing early in the season with the interval of a 
minor third ; the bird then proceeds to a major third, 
next to a fourth, then a fifth, after which its voice 
breaks, without attaining a minor sixth. It may, 
therefore, be said to have done much for musical 
science, because from this bird has been derived the 
Epigrams (Black Letter), 1587." 
