NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



139 



(ring-dove), and of i^Qfringilla (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 the same food 

 with the hard-billed : for the former have thin membranaceous 

 stomachs suited to their soft food ; while the latter, the granivo- 

 rous tribe, have strong muscular gizzards, which, like mills, grind, 

 by the help of small 

 gravels and pebbles, what 

 is swallowed. This pro- 

 ceeding of the cuckoo, 

 of dropping its eggs as 

 it were by chance, is 

 such a monstrous out- 

 rage on maternal affec- 

 tion, 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 oropyj) that seems to raise the kind in general above 

 themselves, and inspire them with extraordinary degrees of cun- 

 ning 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 COMMON CUCKOO (Cuculus canorus). 



