THE CUCKOO. 
15 I 
minor scale, the origin of which has puzzled so many ; 
the cuckoo’s couplet being the minor third sung down¬ 
wards. Kircher, however,* gives it thus :— 
In Gardiner’s “Music of Nature” it is rendered as 
follows :— 
A friend of Gilbert White’s found upon trial that the 
note of the cuckoo varies in different individuals. About 
Selborne Wood he found they were mostly in D. He 
heard two sing together, the one in D, the other in D 
sharp, which made a very disagreeable duet. He after¬ 
wards heard one in D sharp, and about Wolmer Forest 
some in C. 
Gungl, in his “ Cuckoo Galop,” gives the note of the 
cuckoo as B natural and G sharp. Dr. Arne, in his music 
to the cuckoo’s song in Love s Labour s Lost , gives it as 
C natural and G. 
And now “ will you hear the dialogue that the two 
learned men have compiled in praise of the owl and the 
cuckoo ? This side is Hiems, Winter; this Ver, the 
Spring; the one maintained by the owl, the other by the 
cuckoo. 
“ Ver, begin :— 
“ Musurgia Universalis.” 1650. p. 30. 
