*NM CSICAL CUCKOOS.
Have other observers noticed this year how very much
out of tune the cuckoos are ? They are in great quantity and sing interminably, especially at night, or very, very early in the morning,, as early as the domestic cocks, which begin " heralding the dawn " at midnight. Now all self-respecting cuckoos are supposed to sing a true major third early in the 0R1 &Wending with various inaccuracies to a minor third
as the season advances. This is normal, though far from universal ; and this year the exceptions are the rule. More than this, some of these degenerate or lazy birds sing two notes that do not represent any sort of true interval. 'It may be that the deficiency of a certain food, such as the hairy caterpillar, which (without much evidence) cuckoos arc said to favour, has affected their voices. The result is vexatious. Instead of " begetting the golden time again," as according to Wordsworth the notes should, they almost irritate, and take their place on the very small list of birds' notes that displease : the dissyllabic scrape of the great tit, the squeezed monotone of the lugubrious greenfinch, and the exigent squeak of the young sparrow. Almost all other songs and notes can give pleasure, and none other in my experience affects the nerves disagreeably. Even the loud single shout of the swift is a welcome noise.
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