NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE IO5 



came to recollect and inquire, I could not find that any cuckoo 

 had ever been seen in these parts, except in the nest of the 

 wagtail, the hedge-sparrow, the titlark, the whitethroat, and 

 the redbreast, all soft-billed insectivorous birds. The excel- 

 lent Mr. Willughby mentions the nest of the Palwnbus (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 granivorous tribe, have strong muscular gizzards, 

 which, like mills, grind, by the help of small gravels and peb- 

 bles, what is swallowed. This proceeding of the cuckoo, of 

 dropping its eggs as it were by chance, is such a monstrous 

 outrage on maternal affection, one of the first great dictates 

 of nature ; and such a violence 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 C-TO/^T; 

 that seems to raise the kind in general above themselves, and 

 inspire them with extraordinary degrees of cunning and ad- 

 dress, may be still endued with a more enlarged faculty of 

 discerning what species are suitable and congenerous nursing- 

 mothers for its disregarded eggs and young, and may deposit 

 them only under their care, this would be 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 concern- 

 ing 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 hers : 



" Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath 

 He imparted to her understanding." 1 



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



