no THE NATURAL HISTORY 



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. 



What was said by a very ancient and sublime writer 

 concerning 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." } 



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

 season, or does she drop several in different nests accord- 

 ing as opportunity offers ? 



I am, etc. 



LETTER V 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES HARRINGTON 



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 red- 

 breast, the swallow, the white-throat, the goldfinch, the 

 common linnet, are all undoubted instances of the truth of 

 what I advanced. 



1 Job xxxix. 1 6, 17. 



