i8o T'he Natural History of Se I borne 



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 

 pebbles, 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 0-1-0/377; 

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

 inspire them with extraordinary degrees of cunning and 

 address, 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. 1 



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 hers : 



" Because God hath deprived her of -wisdom, neither hath he im- 

 parted to her understanding" * 



* Job xxxix. 16, 17. 



1 The cuckoo lays its eggs for the most part in the nests of birds much 

 smaller than itself. This is probably in order that the young cuckoo may 

 be markedly stronger than its fellow-nestlings, and so able to oust its 

 unhappy little foster-brothers from the nest when necessary. It is quite 

 true that cuckoos lay in the nests of chaffinches ; but there is no such 

 objection to this procedure as White supposes : for all the finches, as well 

 as some other hard-billed birds, though they subsist in the adult stage on 

 grains and acorns, feed their callow young upon grubs and caterpillars. 



