Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1892-06-24
CUCKOO FOLK Lose.
o'fious Ideas, Beliefs and Facts ABB
the Strange T3trd

cAiiaust the subject of cuckoo folk lore.
20 plrd is 80 much noticed by rustics
and round no other bird have ~ rpanv
curious fancies crystallized. Like tho
goose several familiar plants are named
from IT and when it has once arrived IL
must eat three meals of cherries. A.
cording to the folk lore, before 1t ceases
its song, while
The first cock o. hay
rights the cuckoo awav
And then latter ST. Johns dav, he
turns into a hawk. Almost every game
keeper at the present day shoots
cuckoos in consequence Of this belief
although he could not well spare them
lnasmuch as the cuckoo sssucks littIa
birds eggs to make her voice clear. >
In Yorkshire this bird influences aqri-
| culture:
When cuckoo calls on the baret horn
sell your COW and buy your corn
Woe betide you If you do not turn
the money in your pocket on first hear
ing the birdl If you have plenty OF
COINS at that time endless good fortune
will follow you throughout the wear
and any wish within reasonable limits
will then be granted. Here is another
farmers proverb, the Interpretation Of
which Is self evident:
Cuckoo oats and woodcock hav
Make farmer run away
Not only does the cuckoo prognosti-
cate length of life, but what is still
more interesting it il able to tell maid
ems how many years they will remain
unmarried. A pretty Bohemian super
stition accounts for the fact Of the
cuckoo building no nest, but LAYING her
own egg In that of a linnet or hedge
sparrow. On the feast of the Annun-
citation, 1t seems, old custom prescribed
that birds should leave off building
their nests; the cuckoo was an excep-
ton, and worked as usual. II was
therefore cursed and deprived of hus-
band. Some may be glad to know that
they can insure themselves against luIn-
bago the rest of the year by rolling
over and over in the grass the first time
the cuckoo is heard. Its note is pro-
verbally monotonous, and the Scotch
have saying, "Ye're like the cuckoo
ye haze but one song" Its depositing
its egg in strange nest and leaving it
there to be Matched is the origin of
Shakespeare's rather forced Jokes on its
name-"A word of fear, unpleasant to
husbands ear"
In the ancient system of medicine
the cuckoo was bird of much value.
The body of cuckoo, for instance.
next the body in hareskin caused
sleep. These are samples of the genius
for the marvellous which SO dominated
mems minds in the Middle ages, and
which still remains in out of the way
districts. The strange habits of the
cuckoo tended to the formation of these
myths, and nothing could be too wild
or extravaganza to father on SO curious
a bird.
And yet the facts of the cuckoos life
and economy are SO curious that no in
ventive powers are'required to heighten
the birds attractiveness. 1t is sup
posed that the males considerably out
number the females, and that the lat
ter do not sing. The cuckoo is para
sitical bird, leaving its eggs to be
Matched and its young to be reared by
foster parents. Two birds, belonging
respectively to North and South Amer
lea, somewhat akin to our starting
(Molothrus pecoris and NJ niger pos
sess analogous habits, and with the
cuckoos are the only birds which fasten,
as it were, on another bird, upon whose
food they live and whose death would
involve theirs during the period of in
fancy.
Another fact has been discovered in
regard to this. 1t is found that the fe-
male cuckoo lays her egg, not in the
nest which she selects, but on the
ground - sometimes close, at other
times some little distance from the
nest-and then transports it in her bill
to the nest where she desires to leave
it. Professor Newton remarks that
cuckoos have occasionally been shot
while thus carrying their eggs, and
thinks, with much show of reason, that
this custom has probably given rise to
the belief that they suck the eggs of
other birds; to which we would add
the corroborative fact that they are
continually mobbed by other birds as
if they were mischievous robbers. The
egg, as most school boys know, is very
variable in color.
When it is Matched the young cuckoo
speedily thrusts out its foster parents
eggs and even any young ones, Shout
dering them, as it were, on its back, as
Jenner (who actually saw the process)
describes it, and then throwing them
out of the nest with jerk. Most resi-
dents in the country must have noticed
the ungainly looking young cuckoo
after it has flown from the nest, resting
on the lawn or on tree in a helpless,
begging attitude, noisily calling for
food, which is always faithfully sup
piled by its foster mother, even when
herself but little water wagtail This
contrast between the pair in size and
independence is ludicrous and striking.
After some time the young cuckoo fol-
lows its kind to the south, the old ones
always going tirst.-Cor. st. James
Budget.
Rather Embarrassing.
Il. l. II.