XXX.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



95 



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 whitethroat, and the redbreast, all soft-billed insectivorous 

 birds. The excellent Mr. Willughby mentions the nest of the 

 paluiribus (ring-dove) and of the fringilla (chaffinch), birds that 

 subsist on acorns and grains, and sucli 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 CUCKOO. 



the same food with the hard-billed ; for the former have thin 

 membranaceous 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 proceeding 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 related of a bird 

 in the Brazils, or Peru, it would never have merited our belief. 



