OF SELBORNE 109 



LETTER IV 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON 



Selborne, Feb. 19, 1770. 



DEAR SIR, 



YOUR observation that " the cuckoo does not deposit its 

 egg indiscriminately 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 per- 

 fectly new to me; and struck me so forcibly, that I 

 naturally fell into a train of thought that led me to con- 

 sider 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 white-throat, and the redbreast, all soft-billed 

 insectivorous birds. The excellent Mr. Willughby men- 

 tions the nests 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 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 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 a-rop^ that seems to raise 

 the kind in general above themselves, and inspire them 



