OF SELBORNE. 157 
cerning what species are suitable and congencrous 
nursing-mothers for its disregarded eggs and young, 
and may deposite them only under their care, this 
would be adding wonder to wonder, and instancing, 
in a fresh manner, that the methods of Providence 
are not subjected to any mode or rule, but astonish 
us in new lights, and in various and changeable 
appearances. 
What was said by a very ancient and sublime 
writer concerning the defect of natural affection in 
the ostrich, may be well applied to the bird we are 
talking of: 
“She is hardened against her young ones, as 
though they were not hers: 
“ Because God hath deprived her of wisdom ; 
neither hath he imparted to her understanding.’* 
Query—Does each hen cuckoo lay but one egg 
in a season, or does she drop several in different 
nests, according as opportunity offers ? 
LETTER V. 
Selborne, April 12, 1770. 
Dear Srr,—I HEARD many birds of several spe- 
cies sing last year after Midsummer ; enough to 
prove that the summer solstice is not the period 
that puts a stop to the music of the woods. The 
yellow-hammer, no doubt, persists with more stead- 
iness than any other; but the woodlark, the wren, 
the redbreast, the swallow,. the whitethroat, the 
goldfinch, the common linnet, are all undoubted in. 
stances of the truth of what I advanced. 
* Job, xxxix., 16, 17. 
O 
