THE NATURAL HISTORY 



[LETT. 



The sedge-bird has a surprising variety ot notes resembling 

 the song of several other birds ; but then it has also a hurrying 

 manner, not at all to its advantage : it is notwithstanding a 

 delicate polyglot. 



It is new to me that titlarks in cages sing in the night ; per- 

 haps only caged birds do so. I once knew a tame redbreast in 

 a cage that always sang as long as candles were in the room ; 

 but in their wild state no one supposes they sing in the night. 



I should be almost ready to doubt the fact, that there are to be 

 seen much fewer birds in July than in any former month, not- 

 withstanding so many young are hatched daily. Sure I am that 

 it is far otherwise with respect to the swallow tribes, which 

 increase prodigiously as the summer advances. I saw, at the 

 time mentioned, many hundreds of young wagtails on the banks 

 of the Cherwell, which almost covered the meadows. If the 

 matter appears as you say in the other species, may it not be 

 owing to the dams being engaged in incubation, while the young 

 are concealed by the leaves ? 



Many times have I had the curiosity to open the stomach of 

 woodcocks and snipes ; but nothing ever occurred that helped 

 to explain to me what their subsistence might be : all that I 

 could ever find was a soft mucus, among which lay many 

 pellucid small gravels. 



SELBORNE, Jan. 15, 1770. 



LETTER XXX. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINOTON. 



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 was so, and what reason 

 there was for it. When I came to recollect and inquire, I could 



