122 NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER IV. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, Feb. 19, 1770. 

 DEAR SIR, 



YOUR observation that " the cuckoo does not deposit it's egg 

 " indiscriminately in the nest of the first bird that comes in it's 

 " way, but probably looks out a nurse in some degree con- 

 " generous, with whom to intrust it's 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 recol- 

 lect and inquire, I could not find that any cuckco had ever 

 been seen in these parts, except in the nest of the wagtail, the 

 hedge-sparrow, the titlark, the white-throat, and the red-breast, 

 all soft-billed insectivorous birds. The excellent Mr. Wil- 

 lughby mentions the nests of the palumbus (ring-dove), and of 

 the fringilla (chaffinch,) birds that subsist on acorns and 

 grains, and such 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 same food 

 with the hard-billed : for the former have thin membranaceous 

 stomachs suited to their soft food ; while the latter, the grani- 

 vorous tribe, have strong muscular gizzards, which, like mills, 

 grind, by the help of small gravels and pebbles, what is swal- 

 lowed. This proceeding of the cuckoo, of dropping it's eggs as 

 it were by chance, is such a monstrous outrage on maternal af- 

 fection, one of the first great dictates of nature ; and such a vio- 

 lence on instinct ; that, had it only been related of a bird in the 

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

 yet, should it farther appear that this simple bird, when divested 

 of that natural 9x0/0777 that seems to raise the kind . in general 

 above themselves, and inspire them with extraordinary degrees 



