CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS FAMILY. 113 



of several sorts. Now, as it appears that this bird, which un- 

 doubtedly sits itself, is formed exactly as cuckows are, we may 

 reasonably conclude that Mr. Herissant's conjecture that 

 cuckows are incapable of incubation from the disposition of 

 their intestines becomes groundless, and we are still to seek 

 for the cause of that strange peculiarity. 



G. W. 



LETTER XII. 



TO SAMUEL BARKER. 



Sep. 6, 1775. 

 DEAR SAM, 



As you desired, I procured a cuckow which was in some 

 degree bare-breasted, yet showed no token of incubation from 

 any scurfiness of the skin ; besides, the bird had all the marks 

 of being a young one. When we had cut open the breast- 

 bone, and exposed the intestines to sight, we found that the 

 crop or craw did not lie before the sternum at the bottom of 

 the neck, as in the Gallincc and others, but immediately over 

 the bowels. This stomach was large and round, and stuffed 

 very hard with food, which, upon examination, was found to 

 consist of various insects, such as small Scarcibcei, Ptini, Elatri, 

 Aranew, Lilellulce, &c., the last of which I have seen cuckows 

 catching on the wing over Oakhanger pond more than once. 

 The farrago also was made up of maggots and many seeds, 

 which seemed to belong either to gooseberries, currants, cran- 

 berries, or some other berries ; so that these birds apparently 

 subsist on fruit and insects ; nor was there the least appear- 

 ance of bones, feathers or fur to support the idle notion of 

 their being birds of prey. The sternum of this bird seemed 

 to me to be remarkably short, between which and the anus lay 

 the crop or craw, and immediately behind that the bowels ; 

 and close to the backbone the parts that distinguished the bird 

 to be a male. Now it must be allowed, as the French anato- 

 mist observes, that the crop placed just upon the bowels must 



VOL. II. I 



