"There is magic in the first call of the Cuckoo, perhaps because its ventriloquial quality makes it seem to come from nowhere. It is only later, after you have heard it interminably calling this rediculously stupid repetition of two notes, that it grows monotonous. But each year without fail, the first time you hear it, you stop whatever you may be doing, to enjoy the exhilaration, to rejoice in the possibility that spring is either here or is on the way."