CUCKOOS. 123 



Bay remarks, that birds of the gallina order, as cocks and 

 hens, partridges and pheasants, &c., are pulveratrices, such 

 as dust themselves, using that method of cleansing their 

 feathers, and ridding themselves of their vermin. As far as 

 I can observe, many birds that dust themselves never wash ; 

 and I once thought that those birds that wash themselves 

 would never dust : but here I find myself mistaken ; for 

 common house-sparrows are great pulveratrices, being 

 frequently seen grovelling and wallowing in dusty roads ; 

 and yet they are great washers. Does not the skylark dust ? 



Query. Might not Mahomet and his followers take one 

 method of purification from these pulveratrices ? because I 

 find, from travellers of credit, that if a strict Mussulman is 

 journeying in a sandy desert, where no water is to 'be found, 

 at stated hours he strips off his clothes, and most scrupu- 

 lously rubs his body over with sand or dust. 



A countryman told me he had found a young fern-owl in 

 the nest of a small bird on the ground : and that it was fed 

 by the little bird. I went to see this extraordinary pheno- 

 menon, and found that it was a young cuckoo hatched in the 

 nest of a titlark ; it was become vastly too big for its nest, 

 appearing 



in tenui re 



Majores pennas nido extendisse." 



Though by poverty depress'd, 

 Spreading its wings beyond the nest ; 



and was very fierce and pugnacious, pursuing my finger, as I 

 teased it, for many feet from the nest, and sparring and 

 buffeting with its wings like a game-cock. The dupe of a 

 dam appeared at a distance, hovering about with meat in its 

 mouth, and expressing the greatest solicitude. 



the swallow. Although it "twitters sweetly," there is in its song no appear- 

 ance of emulation. On the contrary it seems to proceed from feelings of 

 happiness and complacency, which cannot be mistaken. I like to watch it 

 darting now and then to its nest, and uttering that little note of love which 

 is responded to by the female while she is performing her task of incubation. 

 And then to see its airy evolutions ! 



" I delight to see 



How suddenly he skims the glassy pool, 

 How quaintly dips, and with an arrow's speed 

 Whisks by. I love to be awake, and hear 

 His morning song twitter'd to dawning day." Hurdis. ED. 



