15 MARCH 1913, Page 19

" WINTER CUCKOOS. "

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.']

Sna,—One of my servants, a country-bred girl, told me that she heard the cuckoo quite distinctly on February 11th in the neighbourhood of Bletchington, about eight miles from here (Oxford), when she was out bicycling in that direction. It seems hardly likely that boys should be imitating its call in several parts of the country at the same period out of mere freakishness. Has it been noticed that the cuckoo, the typical usurper or supplanter, has himself been displaced from the Bible (Leviticus xi. 16, and Deuteronomy xiv. 15), the word translated "cuckoo " in the A.V. being translated " seamew "