From Pictorial Calendar of the Seasons By John Aikin (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854), page 148:


For the following curious and elaborate paper on the Cuckoo we are indebted to the pen of a clever lady.

THE CUCKOO.

The cuckoo comes in April,
Sings a song in May;
Then in June another tune,
And then she flies away;

says the Gloucestershire peasant, and this—like all our quaint old popular sayings—is a correct, if not an elegant, account of that of which it treats. It alludes, however, only to the old birds, which leave as at the end of June or in the beginning of July; but there is another version, which, with various verbal alterations carries on the story to the end of the scene, to the flight of the young birds, thus:—

In April
Come she will,
In flowery May
She doth sing all day,
In leafy June
She doth change her tune
In bright July
She doth begin to fly,
In August
Go she must.