Random reminder

Press, 30 November 1978, Page 23

Random reminder

MESSACE RECEIVED One of the simple middle-aged, pleasures of Max, now a city dweller, is to listen to the bird calls that start the day, for the National Programme of Radio New Zealand, and identify them before the announcer. Maddeningly, Max is invariably right. When he was a young man. Max worked on a farm in the north of the North Island. His boss was a quiet, good-natured man. The farmer’s wife was a pleasant woman, a great cook, and with one simple ambition, to be the first person each year to hear the Shining Cuckoo. Heralder of Spring! she called it, back from its winter in the Solomon Islands. Even before, winter was over she was waiting for ■ its arrival, and listening for its! distinctive kui-kui, kui, calls. She! wasn’t concerned that the cuckoo was) going to knock the baby Grey Warbler; out of its nest. Nor that it would lay its huge brownish-white egg in it, andi expect the grey warbler's parents to! work overtime, on the cuckoo) offspring's hungry mouth. The Shining Cuckoo heralded spring, and she! awaited its arrival with keen pleasure. ; The first spring Ma v was on the; farm, an elderly man had written to the local paper, saying he had heard the Shining Cuckoo. It was at least; another four days before the farmer’s wife heard it, in their part of the; bush. She wasn’t sorry to see it leave, at the end of the summer, on its long! northern flight. Nor its well-fed young.

. Towards the c-nd of the winter, the following year, the farmer's wife was again awaiting the arrival of the Shining Cuckoo. Early each morni she went to the edge of the bush to listen. It was still too early, but this year she was hopeful it would arrive earlier in the bush. One moring as the farniei was drinking his last cup ol tea. his wife came running back into lhe house “I heard it,” she cried. “I heard it. It’s the earliest I’ve ever heard it Her husband looked up and asked (mildly, 'Heard what?" “The cuckoo of course, lhe Shining i Cuckoo,” she said. I “Oh,” he said, and turning to Max I who had just sidled into the room. ! “There you are. Come on. let’s get back to work.” The farmer’s wife spent the morning !on the telephone informing the local ■paper and her friends. According to • the degree of interest they either -aid, ;oh yes, and went on to describe some domestic disaster, or agreed that yes !it was early, or was she sure? Of course she was sure, she knew that distinctive kui. kui, kui. of the Shining Cuckoo. She listened again the next day. and ; the next, but it was nearly a week before she heard the cuckoo again, and 1 saw it sitting on a branch Max wasn't game to imitate it again. There was something about the boss's • smile.