l the 13th; this one I saw soon
afterwards at Mr. Jago's, the bird-stuffer. These birds were probably
paired, and would therefore very likely have bred in Herm, had one of
them not been shot, and the other accordingly driven to look for a mate
elsewhere. It would pay, as well as be interesting, as I remarked in a
note to the 'Star' in reference to this occurrence of the pair of
Hoopoe's, to encourage these birds to breed in the Islands whenever they
shewed a disposition to do so, as, though rather a foul-feeder and of
unsavoury habits in its nest, and having no respect for sanitary
arrangements, the Hoopoe is nevertheless one of the most useful birds in
the garden.

The Hoopoe is included in Professor Ansted's list, but only marked as
occurring in Guernsey and Sark. There are now only two specimens in the
Museum, and these have no note of date or locality, but a few years ago
there were several more, and one or two I remember were marked as having
been killed in the spring; the rest were probably autumnal specimens.

84. CUCKOO. _Cuculus canorus_, Linnaeus. French, "Coucou gris."--The
Cuckoo is one of the commonest and most numerous summer visitants to the
Islands, and is generally spread over all of them; it arrives about the
same time that it does in England, that is to say, about the middle of
April. I know earlier instances--even as early as February--have been
recorded, but these must have been recorded in consequence of some
mistake, probably some particularly successful imitation of the note.
Mr. MacCulloch seems to think that the time of their arrival is very
regular, as he writes to me to say, "The Cuckoo generally arrives here
about the 15th of April; sometimes as early as the 13th, as was the case
this year (1878); the first are generally reported from the cliffs at
St. Martin's, near Moulin Huet, the first land they would make on their
arrival from Brittany." Very soon after their arrival, however, they
spread over the whole Island of Guernsey, as well as all the other
neighbouring islands, in all of which they are equally plentiful; they
seem to cross from one to the other without much considering four or
five miles of sea, or being the least particular as to taking the
shortest passage across from island to island. As usual, there were a
great number of Cuckoos in the Vale whilst I was there this summer
(1878); but I was unfortunate in not finding eggs, and in not seeing any
of the foster-parents feedin