NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 127 
suited to their soft food; while the latter, the granivorous tribe, 
have strong muscular gizzards, which, like mills, grind, by the help 
of small gravels and pebbles, what is swallowed. This proceeding 
of the cuckoo, of dropping its eggs as it were by chance, is such a 
monstrous outrage on maternal affection, one of the first great 
dictates of nature; and such a violence on instinct ; that, had it 
only been related of a bird in the Brazils, or Peru, it would never 
have merited our belief. But yet, should it farther appear that 
this simple bird, when divested of that natural oropyi that seems to 
raise the kind in general above themselves, and inspire them with 
extraordinary degrees of cunning and address, may be still endued 
with a more enlarged faculty of discerning what species are suitable 
and congenerous nursing-mothers for its disregarded eggs and 
young, and may deposit 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.” T 
Query. Does each female cuckoo lay but one egg in a season, 
or does she drop several in different nests according as opportunity 
offers ? I am, &c. 
* We do not know exactly the instinctive motive which influences the cuckoo in the 
deposition of its eggs. Locality in this may have its influence. and the cuckoo frequenting 
a woodland and cultivated district, may seek other fostermothers from those which visit a 
more open country. Upon the edges of cultivated grounds, bordering on a subalpine 
district where there is natural copse-wood ; and there is no locality more in favour with the 
cnckoo; the nest of the titlark, Anthus pratensis, is that most frequently selected : that of 
the ring-dove as quoted above, is a most unlikely resort to be chosen; an unerring instinct 
guides the parent; the dissimilarity of the egg would have been at once discovered, and 
the important fact of the intruder requiring to be the strongest, and to keep the nest ror 
himself would in this case most probably be reversed. We have known the egg of the 
cuckoo to be deposited in the nest of the chaffinch, to which Mr. White’s objection will 
not stand, for he had overlooked the fact that all the finches, and some others, which are 
commonly called ‘‘ hard-billed birds,’’ feed their young upon insects, caterpillars, &c. ; 
and during summer are themselves most useful to the gardener to keep in check many of 
his most troublesome enemies.—See also White’s remarks on the cuckoo, Letter VII. to 
Barrington, p. 135. 
+ Job xxxix. 16, 37. 
