Many, many, years ago, or so the legend says, a man and his son lived in the tiny village of Blair in the ancient county of Montague.
And it came to pass one day in the month of April that a brown bird was heard to sing in the garden of their home. The son, enamored of the bird and covetous of its song, beseeched his father that he might possess the brown bird for himself. The doting father agreed and thus they devised a plan...


When next they spied the bird, they would swiftly build a fence around it and thus it would be trapped. Eventually, the bird appeared and they began their task! They toiled from dawn till dusk and when they had finished, they stood back in admiration of their handiwork, which they painted green and yellow, in accordance with the laws of nature.


Just then the bird ceased its singing, flew into the air and away into the wood....


Disappointed but not daunted, they resolved to sequester the assistance of their friends to build the fence higher when next the brown bird came to rest in their garden...The brown bird came back again and while he sang, father, son and a half dozen friends toiled once more, but at dusk the bird flew away to the wood...

Foolishly they called for seven more friends and they all toiled for many days and the fence grew higher while the bird's song became sweeter....


Eventually, they realised that they could never capture the creature in that way....


An old and wise acquaintance was passing by on his way to work at a local Customs House. He rebuked their simple-mindedness...

“Why on earth,” said he, “are you trying to catch a cuckoo, when you already have fifteen cuckoos in your garden?”

And thus it was thereafter that all those playing in the green and yellow are called “Cuckoos”...