THE CALL OF THE CUCKOO.
[To 71IS EDITOR 01 ins "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—I have tried this spring to take down, whenever I could, the notes of the cuckoos calling near my house. I have heard a number of different calls, and the notes have been those: G to D, Ft to Ct, Ft to D, F to C, E to Cit, and (rarely, and always either late at night or very early in the morning) E to C. I think this a very beautiful call : surely a happy cuckoo. About the last of all I own I am uncertain. It is a triple call, and I believe it to be Fit, D, E. It is not the ordinary triple cry, " Cuck-eackoo," to which the cuckoo changes in June. It is a third note added, not the first note repeated ; it is " Cuekoo-oo." I thought when I heard it first that the last " oo" must be the second note of the call of another cuckoo; but then I have never heard a separate cuckoo end his call on E. I wonder if any of your readers have heard this call.—I am, Sir, &c., E. P.
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