OF SELBORNE 179 



cuckoos catching on the wing as they were just emerging 

 out of the aurelia state. Among this farrago also were to 

 be seen maggots, and many seeds, which belonged either 

 to gooseberries, currants, cranberries, or some such fruit ; 

 so that these birds apparently subsist on insects and fruits : 

 nor was there che least appearance of bones, feathers, or 

 fur to support the idle notion of their being birds of 

 prey. 



The sternum in this bird seemed to us to be remarkably 

 short, between which and the anus lay the crop, or craw, 

 and immediately behind that the bowels against the back- 

 bone. 



It must be allowed as this anatomist observes, that the 

 crop placed just upon the bowels must, especially when 

 full, be in a very uneasy situation during the business of 

 incubation ; yet the test will be to examine whether birds 

 that are actually known to sit for certain are not formed 

 in a similar manner. This inquiry I proposed to myself 

 to make with a fern-owl, or goatsucker, as soon as oppor- 

 tunity offered : because, if their formation proves the same, 

 the reason for incapacity in the cuckoo will be allowed to 

 have been taken up somewhat hastily. 



Not long after a fern-owl was procured, which, from its 

 habit and shape, we suspected might resemble the cuckoo 

 in its internal construction. Nor were our suspicions ill- 

 grounded ; for, upon the dissection, the crop, or craw, 

 also lay behind the sternum, immediately on the viscera, 

 between them and the skin of the belly. It was bulky, 

 and stuffed hard with large phalaenae^ moths of several 

 sorts, and their eggs, which no doubt had been forced out 

 of those insects by the action of swallowing. 



Now as it appears that this bird, which is so well known 

 to practise incubation, is formed in a similar manner with 

 cuckoos. Monsieur Herissant's conjecture, that cuckoos 

 are incapable of incubation from the disposition of their 

 intestines, seems to fall to the ground : and we are still at 

 a loss for the cause of that strange and singular peculiarity 

 in the instance of the cuculus canorus. 



We found the case to be the same with the ring-tail 



