cuckoo (GanS 1)

The Cornish sub-species of common cuckoo, Cuculus canorus cornubiensis, is known to our native zoologists (or 'beastlorers', as Nativists might term them) as Cucu kemyn. The bird is known for its raucous song and the inept typography of its plumage.

But what is even less congenial is Cucu kemyn's parasitic behaviour towards members of other avian species. The gravid hen (the yar or dj-yar-dj as it is known locally) sneaks up on an unoccupied nest and lays a single egg, camouflaged to resemble those of its unwitting hosts. As the fledgeling grows, it ejects all the other chicks from the nest until it is the only survivor, and can receive the undivided attention of its food providers.

It is selective in which species it parasitises, preferring either institutional nests like those of the Kesva kemynophora and the Cowethus pseudoyethii, or those of naïve members of the family Dyskeridae. Curiously, the species seems to be ashamed of its method of reproduction, as it persistently denies its own natural history, preferring a sanitised, fictional version in which the host species agree to be parasitised for their own good.

The current range and population size of the species is difficult to estimate, even though the bird is loud and vainglorious, and thus conspicuous in the wild. But field recordings by cornithologists suggest that the Cucu kemyn is in decline, as its parasitised host species appear to have learned to recognise its eggs, and cooperate in removing them from their nests before they hatch.

If you want to be known as a kook who
Indulges in Cornish that's cuckoo,
Learn Kernowek Kemmyng
And then, like a lemmyng,
Head straight for the cliffs—Kemyn: fük yu!

The "Strain'd Muse" (1984)