270 NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
defrayed by the Epping Forest Committee. The Committee report
that "the pond affords enjoyment to a very large number of persons,
including both residents and visitors, and its construction has
very much improved the appearance of that portion of the
Forest."
And finally an interesting improvement in Wanstead Park is
described :—
" Wanstead Park is bounded on the east by the River Roding, and we
have purchased from the Trustees of the late Earl of Mornington a small
piece of land on the opposite bank of the river for the sum of £100, with the
object of controlling the flow of water from the river into the ornamental
waters whenever they require flushing. A dam has been in existence at that
spot for very many years ; but, as the land on the opposite bank was about to
pass into other hands, we deemed it advisable to purchase this small portion
with the object of ensuring the control of the dam."
We think that lovers of the Forest are to be congratulated
on the additions and improvements made during the past year.
NOTES-ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
ZOOLOGY.
The Cuckoo's Changed Tune.—"Rusticus" writes in To-Day, of
June 21st, as follows :—"An old rhyme about the cuckoo, which has many
variations, runs sometimes like this : 'In April he whets his bill ; in May he
sings all day; in June he changes his tune; in July he prepares to fly; in
August go he must.' For a piece of folklore this summary of the bird's life,
while he is with us, is remarkably accurate ; and in the matter of changing
their tune the cuckoos in our neighbourhood might have been keeping their
eyes upon the calendar, for it was in the small hours of the morning of June
2nd that they began, as by common consent, to vary the last of a long series
of 'Cuck-oo-cuck-oos' with a concluding 'Cuck-uck-oo' or even 'Cuck-
uck-uck.' They were so extraordinarily noisy also on that morning as to
render sleep impossible after one untimely awakening ; and there was nothing
for it but to dress and sally forth, although it still wanted a good hour to
sunrise.''
I do not gather from the remarks of "Rusticus" from what part of
England he writes. But I was staying with my son at Ruyton-xi-Tovvns,
Shropshire, during the last week in April (1900) and noted while there that it
appeared to be the ordinary habit of the local cuckoos to conclude a series of
"cuck-oos" with a "cuck-uck-oo." Never having heard this prolongation
before, I was much interested in it, and wondered whether it was an individual
peculiarity or not, cuckoos being much more often heard than seen, and it
being impossible to be sure whether a bird uttering "cuck-uck-oo" near a
certain village was identical with another heard a mile or two away, or not
However, the cuckoos seem to change their tune earlier in west Shropshire
than in some other parts of England.—T. V. Holmes, Greenwich.