THE CUCKOO.
I.TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—In your article in the Spectator of May 13th on "Cuckoos and Nightingales," you say that the popular feeling in England in favour of the cuckoo is "certainly of recent growth." Is this so certain as you seem to think it P The earliest reference that I know to the cuckoo seems to me to express exactly the common feeling of to-day :— " l,.ios 'central morcrtgEt Spvbs v TerciActcrt
T6 svpiorov, Tirree SE 13poTo6s Jr' lorelpovarciav,"
says Hesiod, who, in "The Works and Days," certainly re- presents the ordinary feelings of the early Greek peasant. Moreover, a reference to such well-known books as Johnson's Dictionary and Masson's "Three Centuries of English Poetry" will show that the same feeling prevailed in the days of great_ Elizabeth :— "The merry cuckoo, messenger of spring,
His trumpet shrill hath twice already sounded," says Spenser. "Hark how the jolly cuckoos sing, Cuckoo to welcome in the spring," says Lyly, of " Euphues fame.
"And we hear birds aye tune this merry lay, Cuckoo, jug-jug, pee-we, to-witta-woo,"
says Thomas Nash.
Have you not allowed your feelings of reprobation of the moral character of the cuckoo to interfere with your jag,
ment as to his pleasant note P—I am, Sir, &c., E. F.
Previous page
