126 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
LB ee ae 
TO THE SAME, 
SELBORNE, Fed. 19th, 1770. 
DEAR SIk,—Your observation that “ the cuckoo does not deposit 
its egg indiscriminately in the nest of the first bird that comes in 
its way, but probably looks out a nurse insome degree congenerous, 
with whom to intrust its young,” is perfectly new to me; and 
struck me so forcibly, that I naturally fell into a train of thought 
that led me to consider whether the fact was so, and what reason 
there was forit. When I came to recollect and inquire, I could 
not find that any cuckoo had ever been seen in these parts, except 
CUCKOO. 
in the nest of the wagtail, the hedge-sparrow, the titlark, the 
white-throat, and the redbreast, all soft-billed insectivorous birds. 
The excellent Mr. Willughby mentions the nest of the Paluszbus 
(ring-dove), and of the fr7zgz/la (chaffinch), birds that subsist on 
acorns and grains, and such hard food: but then he does not 
mention them as of his own knowledge; but says afterwards that 
he saw himself a wagtail feeding a cuckoo. It appears hardly 
possible that a soft-billed bird should subsist on thé same foed with 
the hard-billed : for the former have thin membranaceous stomachs 
