(juckoo 



LETTER IV. 



To the same. 



SELBORNE, Feb. igth, 1770. 



EAR SIR, Your observation that " the 

 cuckoo does not deposit its egg indiscrimin- 

 ately in the nest of the first bird that comes 

 in its way, but probably looks out a nurse 

 in some degree congenerous, with whom to 

 intrust its 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 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 

 excellent Mr. Willughby mentions the nest 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 after- 

 wards that he saw himself a wagtail feeding a cuckoo. It 



