LXXII.] OF SELBORNE. 203 



LETTER LXXII. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRIXGTON. 



MONSIEUR HEKISSANT, a French anatomist, seems persuaded that 

 he lias discovered the reason why cuckoos do not hatch their own 

 eggs ; the impediment, he supposes, arises from the internal 

 structure of their parts, which incapacitates them for incubation. 

 According to this gentleman, the crop or craw of a cuckoo does 

 not lie before the sternum at the bottom of the neck, as in the 

 poultry, yallinee, and pigeons, columbce, &c., but immediately 

 behind it, on and over the bowels, so as to make a large pro- 

 tuberance in the belly. 1 



Induced by this assertion, we procured a cuckoo ; and, 

 cutting open the breast-bone, and exposing the intestines to 

 sight, found the crop lying as mentioned above. This stomach 

 was large and round, and stuffed hard like a pincushion with 

 food, which, upon nice examination, we found to consist of 

 various insects ; such as small scarabs, spiders, and dragon-flies ; 

 the last of which we have seen 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 the least appearance of bones, 

 feathers, or fur to support the idle notion of their being birds ot 

 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 

 1 Histoire de 1' Academic Royale, 1752. 



