124 NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER V. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, April 12, 1770. 



DEAR SIR, 



I HEARD many birds of several species sing last year after 

 Midsummer; enough to prove that the summer solstice is not 

 the period that puts a stop to the music of the woods. The 

 yellowhammer no doubt persists with more steadiness than 

 any other ; but the woodlark, the wren, the redbreast, the 

 swallow, the white-throat, the goldfinch, the common linnet, 

 are all undoubted instances of the truth of what I advanced. 



If this severe season does not interrupt the regularity of the 

 summer migrations, the blackcap will be here in two or three 

 days. I wish it was in my power to procure you one of those 

 songsters ; but I am no birdcatcher ; and so little used to birds 

 in a cage, that I fear if I had one it would soon die for want 

 of skill in feeding. 



servations have been published in various ornithological works, and espe- 

 cially in the different natural-history periodicals. The number of species 

 in the nests of which cuckoos' eggs have been found was given by Mr. 

 Rowley (ut supra) and the editor of the ' Ibis ' as more than 50, to which 

 Dr. Rey (Journ; fur Ornith. 1871, pp. 225-228) has added some others : 

 and the list is so indiscriminate as to show that there is no determinate 

 choice as to the class of birds to which the cuckoo confides the care of 

 her offspring, and that, although the insectivorous group may be preferred, 

 they are by no means exclusively selected. In consequence of a certain 

 amount of resemblance between the young cuckoo and the young sparrow- 

 hawk, some curious mistakes have arisen. The following letter I received 

 from a friend of mine, who, I need not say, was no ornithologist : " For 

 some days last week a sparrow-hawk came frequently and settled on the 

 lawn, and, to my surprise, was fed by a water-wagtail as often as it made 

 its appearance. Come when it would, the water-wagtail was sure to be 

 there, and after running about and collecting food, made its way as fast 

 as its little legs could carry it to the hawk and delivered the food, which 

 was taken exactly as young birds take their food from their parents, with 

 stretched-out head and ruffled feathers." For "sparrow-hawk" read 

 " young cuckoo," and we have the true solution of the fact. T. B.] 



