BIRDS.

CROWS.

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

On the first of March,

The craws begin to search,
By the first of April,

They are sitting still.

By the first o' May

They're a flown away;

Croupin' greedy back again,

Wi' October's wind and rain.-AL. 87.

At Pulverbatch, Shropshire, the crows are supposed to say—

All glor, all glor (fat),

W'eer is it? W'eer is it?

Down i' th' moor, Down i' th' moor.

Shall I come along, shall I come along?
Bar bwuns, bar bwuns (bare bones).-AP. 224.

CUCKOO.
"In April, come I will;

In May, I prepare to stay;
In June, I change my tune;
In July, I prepare to fly;
In August, go I must."
Hamps.

"In March, the guku beginth

to sarch;

In Aperal, he beginth to tell;
In May, he beginth to lay;
In June, he altereth 'is tune;
In July, away a dith vly."
Devons.

In Bray's Borders of the Tamar and Tavy, there is another version

In the month of April, he opens his bill,

. . May, he singeth all day,

These rhymes are from the Gardener's Chronicle, 1850; and the Athenæum, 1846. AQ. ii. 48, 49.

"Cuckoo, cuckoo,

What do you do?"

"In April, I open my bill,
In May, I sing night and day,
In June, I change my tune,
In July, away I fly,"

In August, go he must.

"In April, come he will,

In flowery May he doth sing all day,

In leafy June he doth change his tune,

In bright July he doth begin to fly,

In August goes he must."

In Sussex, it is added, as if an afterthought—

If he stay until September,

'Tis as much as the oldest man can remember.

Athenæum, ibid. See also CH. iii. 20.

Northumb.

The cuckoo comes of mid March,

And cucks of mid Aperill,

And gauns away of midsummer month,
When the corn begins to fill.

The cuckoo's a bonny bird, he whistles as he flies,
He brings us good tidings, he tells us no lies;
He sucks little birds' eggs to make his voice clear,
And never sings cuckoo till summer draws near.
Sings cuckoo in April, cuckoo in May,

Cuckoo in June and then flies away.

*A Durham gamekeeper excused himself for shooting a cuckoo by saying, “It was well known that sparrow-hawks turned into cuckoos in the summer."-AP. 222.

Variations

i. And never sings cuckoo till the springtime of the year. 2. And when he sings cuckoo the summer is near.

ii. He drinks the cold water to make his voice clear, And he'll come again in the spring of next year.

Or

He sucks the sweet flowers to make his voice clear, That he may sing cuckoo three months of the year. AQ. iii. 50, 54, 58. See also Aikin's Calendar of Nature, and CE. xi. 38.

The last two lines in variations are also common in Cornwall. CE. xii. 38. The first two in the North of England. AS. 93.

The last two are well-known in North Yorkshire, Derbyshire,

and Westmorland. CH. ii. 555.

In March, he sits upon his

In March, the cuckoo starts,
In April, a tune his bill,
In May, a sing all day,
In June, a change his tune,
In July, away 'a fly,

In August, away 'a must,
In September, you'll ollers
remember,

In October, 'ull never get

over.

East Anglia. CH. iii. 94.

* Of the change of tune alluded to in these verses, it has been remarked (Trans. Linn. Soc.), that in early season the cuckoo begins with the interval of a minor third, proceeds to a major third, then to a fourth, then to a fifth, after which the voice breaks, never attaining a minor sixth.Halliwell.

In South Devonshire it is said

In the month of April,

He singeth taperell (feeble).-CH. ix. 447. The twenty-third of April,

She opens her bill,

The month of May she sings all day.

The middle of June

She changes her tune.

(From a major sixth to a minor third.)

The month of July away she doth fly.

Birmingham Daily Post, April 21, 1879. CH. xi. 403. In Notts Facts and Fictions, by Briscoe, 1876-77, 8vo, p. 9, is a summary

In April, May, and June,

The cuckoo sings a merry tune,
But in August and July,

Having sung, away does fly.

According to White, of Selborne, the 7th of April is the earliest day for hearing the cuckoo, the 26th the latest (for the opening notes). Therefore, before the change of style, the 1st and 2nd of the month, now the 12th and 13th, were days on which it would probably be heard for the first time.* In Sussex, April 14th† is called "first cuckoo-day," and is greeted with these couplets

The cuckoo is a merry bird, etc.

She brings us good tidings, etc.

She picks up the dirt in the spring of the year,

And sucks little bird's eggs, etc.—AS. 93.

When the cuckoo pecks up the dirt," is in Hazlitt's Proverbs, (1882), and he says-i.e. in April. A metaphor for the arrival of spring and fair weather.

Sunshine and rain bring cuckoos from Spain,

But the first cock of hay flays the cuckoo away.

Lancashire. BA. 232.

The last line is also given in The Norfolk Garland, p. 156.

*In fact this bird is heard long before-as early as February in the present year (1882). BC. 318.

In the New Forest they say, "The cuckoo goes to Beaulieu fair to buy him a great-coat." Beaulieu fair day is the 15th of April. It is called Cuckoo Day. BC. 377.

In the month of April the gowk comes over the hill,
In a shower of rain,

And on the — of June he turns his tune again.

Craven, Yorkshire. BC. 242.

The bat, the bee, the butterflee,

The cuckoo, and the swallow,
The corncrake, the heatherdrake,

And a' the rest may follow.

These are the harbingers of spring. The heatherdrake I take to be the common wild duck. CJ. xii. 520.*

There is another version of this, CQ. iii. 65, which is said to be a nursery chant.

Seven sleepers there be,

The bat, the bee, the butterflee,

The cuckoo, and the swallow,

The kittiwake and the corncraik,
Sleep a' in a little hollie.

On the third of April (old style),

Comes in the cuckoo and the nightingale.-AL. 19.

Owing to the titline (titlark) providing for her. Lovell's Hist. Animals, etc., Oxford, 1661, says their feathers come off in winter, and they are scabbed. CQ. iii. 64.

"Scabbed as a cuckoo," is a proverb.

CURLEW.

A curlew lean or a curlew fat,

Carries twelve pence upon her back.

North Lincolnshire. CG. x. 235. Is of the value.
Another version is-

Be she white or be she black,

The curlew has tenpence on her back.-AL. 201.

A variation of this from Ulster, given as a sort of riddle, may be seen, CJ. xii. 521.