The cuckoo comes in April,
The cuckoo sings in May,
The cuckoo mates in June,
And in July she flies away.
In Montgomeryshire I have often heard these lines:—
The cuckoo is a fine bird,
She sings as she flies,
She brings us good tidings,
And never tells us lies;
She sucks young birds’ eggs,
To make her voice clear,
And the more she sings “Cuckoo,”
The summer is quite near.
The last two lines are varied thus:—
And then she sings, “Cuckoo”
Three months in every year.
Or:—
And when she sings “Cuckoo”
The summer is near.
The cuckoo was credited with sucking birds’ eggs, to make room for her own, as well as to acquire a clear voice. Perhaps the rustic belief is at fault here. The writer has seen a cuckoo rise from the ground with an egg in her mouth, but he has seen it stated that the cuckoo always lays her eggs on the ground, and carries them in her mouth until she discovers a nest wherein to deposit them, and when she has done this her mother’s care is over.
A White Cock.
A white cock was looked upon as an unlucky bird, thus:—