Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-06-07

UUtD UD04> 0klVe Su~0<~s WV
hsve hen hsse for moro than FORT
nirkk And : correspondent informs
e lat he heard the cuckoo yesterday
morning n Holland Park. According
", n spite Of the proverb which warns
- thxl enc swallow does not make :
sunnsr, We may regard che season o.
sunshine 70 have come u last. Inc
flrst week Of April h very early sor .ne
cuckoo, and somewhat premature tof
I'll Tie swim swallow and martin 'sm-
ily. There Is no authentic case
On record IN which the first-men-
toned bird has been seen before
shs 8sh Of April, and even then It's
appssrancs was regarded a. somewhat
shssd Of its appointed date. Usually
Il reports itself any time between the
third and fourth weeks Of this month,
today being the average time OF the
year when the zoologist expects TO hear
il clear call from its copses. We are,
however, willing, in spite Of many false
alarms, TO accept the statement that
Sidmouth has this year been peculiarly
favored with these summer visitors.
Still. even admitting the fact, we fail TO
see the soundness Of the interference
which IL is evidently intended 10 draw
from these birds Of passage, having dis
ported themselves 10 soon in particu-
lar locality. When we hear ola swallow
lingering until November in aspecified
spot, ii is only natural to learn that this
IA q - fayorits resort for invalids," or
that when the cuckoo selects another
parish for its first solo In its native land
the advantage Of so mild region ought
to be patent to people in dread OF the
east wind. II is, Of course, easy enough
70 understand that o migratory bird
may be driven southwark by stress OF
weather, though. ct the same time, It
il not quite certain that cold or heat
has SO great q share in these spring and
autumn fights IS is popularity sup
posed. But II Is difficult to imagine
how . bird which winters in Africa or
in the Canary islands can divine that it
will find balmy breezes instead Of east
winds on arriving on our shores. The
cuckoo, for example. which len
us last August or September,
when food was plentiful, and
the weather everything which could
be desired, has been gadding around
among the orsnge-grcves Of Northern
Africa, or accepting such hospitality
as the Turks and Armenians had to
offer Il in Asia Minor. II is, there
fore, quite out Of the question to sup
pose that when il had took its fight
for the north it could have had any
idea that the English season would be
early or late. In reality, the impulse
which determines this spring migra-
ton is stronger one than that which
compels the invalid to return from Al
giers or Madeira, while the sudden re-
solve which seises so many species to
leave us soon after their brood is
fedged is too complex TO be explained
by any theories which have as yet
been promulgated.
The swallow and the nightingale
have been the themes for . prodigious
amount of indifferent verse. But it
may be doubted whether either Of these
birds has been the moving cause for as
much poetry as the cuckoo has prose.
Volumes have been written on its hab-
It's and It's distribution. Discussions,
which come and 90 with less regularity
than the bird over which they are ex-
pended, are again and again raised re-
garding its habits Of laying its eggs in
the nest Of other birds. Yet 80 com
parativcly little is known for certain re-
garding this migrant that there is, per-
hsps, no single fact in its history which
is accepted without cavil by the hum
dreds Of ornithologists who busy them
selves with its private life. As for the
country folk, they seem more inter-
ested in the supernatural powers
which the superstitions Of ages have
woven around it than in solving
the many moot problems in its career.
In Switzerland. for instance, the cuckoo
Is considered to be transformed ba-
ker's boy, and the shepherd girl, when
she first hears the notes Of the bird,
counts the number of times it is re-
peated, under the belief that an equal
number Of years viii elapse before she
is married. In Germany similar
augury is drawn IS to the number Of
years the listener has to live; and in
this country il is . current belief that
they who hear the first notes Of the
cuckoo with an mptypocketare destined
to remain coinless until he disappears,
The Danes dread to hear the cuckoo or
an empty stomach, for in such case the
hspless weight so placed is doomed some
day TO come TO absolute starvation
There is an old adage in Servia to the
effect that when the cuckoo sings in .
wsod without leaves heis the hsrbingel
Of distress; whereas, II he wait till thu
period when the trees are clothed, al
wiz 70 well-with, we presume, thu
person who has not been too premature
Ia detecting the song OF ill-omcn. Tn,
French peasant imagines that in tn
autumn the cuckoo changes itself int,
hawk, just ~ the vsncouver-islan'
Indians believe that the grouse be
come gulls during the winter. II
short, there h . mythology O
this bird, just - there is zoolo
gy;,and even the philologists hav
contributed some very learned pages Il
lie voluminous history. The nam
which the bird bears is, curiousl.
enough, nearly the same in all coun
tries. Il ID, for example, the kukuk
Of the Sanscrit, ths kuckuk Of Ger
many, the cucco Of Italy, the kokku
Of dreece, the gok Of Sweden, tn
koskkoek Of Holland, and the couce
Of France, while the Oldest Englis
spelling eivsa % cuccu for bird whic
evidently fotises those names from II
familiar nots---this fact giving the stu
dents 81 onomatopsia weapon .
which they have not failed to ava
themselves.
However, interesting though Ii
cuckoo may be from . linguistic, foll
lore, Or geographical aspect, the on
pelnt which gives Il 70 prominent
plaoe b archaeological literature is on
which rebounds Il least "a its credit
e during ~ next Few days the kec