Weihaiwei, Sept, 30—It is late in the season to be writing of Cuckoos which leave us at an Junknown date, perhaps two months ago, but a story sent to me in a much belated letter from England is worth repeating....and has remind-Jed me that 1 omitted to carry out this year a long cherished resolve to time the exodus of the Cuckoos: I know they were calling in a Jstammering manner up to the end of July, but whether they then departed or remained here (perhaps silent) for part of August T cannot say. Before repeating this: story I must mention two things: the Cuckoo in England 1s called the "Gowk"—meaning simpleion—a_most appropriate name for an artful, scheming bird which uses neighbours, large and small, to bring up its young: the Indian Cuckoos of }Shanghai use the comparatively large Azure-winged Magpies as their dupes. while the Wei Ihaiwei Cuckoos, like their English cousins place their eggs in the nests of small birds such as Jwarblers; often in England 1 have seen a little HHedge-sparrow standing up on the edge of its Most: to thrust delicacies into the gaping mouth Jot its ugly giant foster-child squatted down in the hollow of its adopted home. So now for the story from the "Country Calendar" of the Lon 'A fledgling Cuckoo having own to a post, its foster-mother, a reed-warbler, landed on rail eight or nine inches below its perch. then stretched upwards to pass it her offering the "simpleton" was not helpful: drawing itself up in its turn, it gaped into the sky.
So the little foster-mother must needs spring on to its back to stuff the food down its gullet. Her head dived in so far into that deep cavern as to make it Jock that she herself was being swallowed." presume the London papers choose their cor-[respondents carefully, so I pass the story on. pvith the simple comment, "next please."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.