110 THE CUCKOO. 



LETTER XXX. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Feb. 19, 1770. 

 DEAR SIR, 



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 in some 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 

 were so, and what reason there was for it. When I 

 came to recollect and inquire, I could not find that 

 any cuckoo had ever been seen in these parts, except 

 in the nest of the wagtail, the hedge-sparrow, the 

 titlark, the white-throat, and the red-breast, all soft- 

 billed insectivorous birds. The excellent Mr. Wil- 

 lughby mentions the nest of the palumbus, (ring-dove,) 

 and of ihefringilla, (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 membrana- 

 ceous stomachs 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 pro- 

 ceeding 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 



