Nicholas Rhea's Diary

Saturday, April 16, 2005

although a very small number might linger until September in the south of England.

Not surprisingly, there was a lot of superstition about the arrival of the cuckoo. I've known old folks turn the money in their pockets at the first sound of the cuckoo, this being thought a sign of good fortune. If you turned your money at the cuckoo's shout, then you would acquire wealth during the year; if you made a wish at the same time, it would be granted.

Some thought it lucky if the cuckoo's call was to one's right or to the front, but if it was behind or to one's left, then bad fortune could be expected. In some areas, it was thought that if you were looking at the ground when you first heard the cuckoo, then you would be dead within a year.

The Welsh thought that a child born on the day the cuckoo was first heard would be lucky throughout his or her life, while in Scotland if a person was out walking and heard the cuckoo, the number of its calls was the number of years the listener could expect to live. In Northumberland, it was considered very fortunate to be standing on soft ground or grass when hearing one's first cuckoo, while to be standing on hard or barren ground was a sign of great misfortune.

The bird's call was also important for romantically inclined girls. In many parts of the country, they believed that an unmarried person should turn around three times upon first hearing the cuckoo, and then remove the left stocking. If they found a hair on the sole of their foot, it would be the colour of the hair of their future spouse. If no hair was found, there would be no romance that year.

However, a girl could discover how many years she must wait until marriage by counting the cuckoo's first cries, but it had to be done beneath a cherry tree. She would call "Cuckoo, cuckoo, cherry tree, how many years before I marry?" And when the cuckoo replied, she had to count its cries, one for each year.

If the cuckoo brings good luck to some, it brings bad luck to lots of our smaller birds. The female does not build her own nest but lays eggs in the nests of others. These are usually of small birds like reed
warblers, dunnocks and meadow pipits, and she might lay twelve eggs in twelve different nests, removing an existing egg to make room for her own. When the baby cuckoo hatches, it throws out all the other eggs and so the foster parents then have the task of rearing a massive hungry foster chick.
For all their supposed romantic charms, cuckoos are not very pleasant birds.

Posted by Jean @ 12:19 PM GMT [Link]

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