OF SELBORNE. 12.3 



of cunning and address, may be still endued with a more en- 

 larged faculty of discerning what species are suitable and con- 

 generous nursing-mothers for it's disregarded eggs and young, 

 and may deposit them only under their care, this would bo 

 adding wonder to wonder, and instancing in a fresh manner, 

 that the methods of Providence are not subjected to any mode 

 or rule, but astonish us in new lights, and in various and 

 changeable appearances. 



What was said by a very ancient and sublime writer con- 

 cerning the defect of natural affection in the ostrich, may be 

 well applied to the bird we are talking of : 



" She is hardened against her young ones, as though they 

 " were not her's : 



" Because God hath deprived her of tuisdom, neither hath he 

 "imparted to her understanding." s 



Query. Does each female cuckoo lay but one egg in a sea- 

 son, or does she drop several in different nests according as 

 opportunity offers ? * 



I am, &c. 



8 Job xxxix. 16, 17. 



* [It was some years later than the dates of those letters of Gilbert 

 White which treat of the cuckoo, although before the actual publication 

 of his book, that Dr. Jenner was led, by the request of John Hunter, to 

 undertake those observations on the habits of this bird which form the 

 subject of an elaborate and interesting paper in the ( Philosophical Trans- 

 actions ' for the year 1788. My attention has been directed by Professor 

 Newton to the fact that " before this date a very good account of the 

 cuckoo had been given by Salerne, in his ' 1'Ornithologie/ published in 

 Paris in 1767 (pp. 38-44), an account unfortunately much overlooked 

 until of late years, and containing the very curious statement, on the au- 

 thority of a fellow-countryman, that the cuckoo's egg always resembles in 

 colour that of the bird in whose nest it is laid. The assertion that this is 

 always the case is, of course, erroneous} but that it very frequently hap- 

 pens has been shown by Dr. Baldamus (Naumannia, 183, pp. 307-326), 

 who figured no fewer than sixteen specimens which bore a more or less 

 close likeness to those of their foster-mother. Dr. Baldamus's paper was 

 translated in 1868 by Mr. A. 0. Smith (Zool. S. S. pp. 1146-1166) ; but 

 meanwhile Mr. Rowley had brought the matter before the British public 

 (' Ibis' 1865, pp. 178-186), and a very considerable amount of controversy 

 has ensued on the subject, into which it is not now advisable to enter." As 

 regards the general subject of the cuckoo's habits, numerous isolated ob- 



