THE CUCKOO'S SECRET
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—I ignored Captain Bernard Acworth's original letter as being beneath serious notice. That judgement would appear correct in the light of his impudence last week in asking to be txensed, for the time being, from answering the complete
rejoinders to his profes,:ed theories which you published the previous week under the Itames of Messrs. Me ikle john and Ware. Captain Acworth claim:: this indulgence " to make a wager " with me.
I hereby call this further bluff on Captain Acworth's part by undertaking that, provided he will forthwith forward to your guardianship the sum of 150, I will, upon hearing from you to that effect, entrust twice that sum to your care on tho following terms :-
Unless I am able to hand to you before the end of July next a recently living cuckoo with an unfaid egg inside her, the egg shelled and in a condition " about to be laid," Captain Acworth is to be entitled to the immediate receipt of his own £50 and of my £100. If, on the other hand, I satisfy the above requirements, I am forthwith to receive back front you my own £100 and Captain Acworth's deposit of £30.
Captain Acworth asks for odds ; so here they are-2 to 1. His response to this acceptance on my part of his wager will, I fancy, result in your readers' estimate of Captain ACworth being reduced to the same level as my own opinion of him in regard both to his recently vaunted nonsense on bird migration as well as on the subject of the cuckoo.—I ant, Sir, &c., EDGAR P. CI I ANCE. Bulwell, Harebells Green, Berks.
[Captain Acworth will reply to this letter next week and will state the terms upon which he is willing to. wager.—En. The Spectator.]
Previous page
