OF SELBORNE. 213 



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 ring-dove 

 (Palumbus), and of the chaffinch (Fringilla), birds that 

 subsist on acorns and grains, and such hard food : but 



other birds, two of which were of its own species. The first ailment was 

 exhibited by sudden unaccountable fits of fear without any apparent 

 cause, greater than the motion of some other bird, when it would dash 

 itself about in the greatest trepidation, and hide itself under the pans, 

 where it continued in the greatest alarm. This increased so much upon 

 it that it was necessary to put it in a small cage by itself. There also it 

 showed frequent attacks of terror, and soon after it became so fierce, that, 

 quite contrary to the habit of the species, it would attack any person that 

 touched its cage, and even myself who had reared it. In this state of 

 strange nervous excitement it continued, till at the end of about six months 

 it died, its bodily health having gradually declined. 



The power of disgorging what would be noxious is not confined to the 

 birds that prey on flesh and insects, though seed birds have not the same 

 occasion to exercise it. I had brought by the mail-coach with me from 

 London a foreign bird, which appeared soon after the journey's end to be 

 very ill, till it was relieved by disgorging near a teaspoonful of entire 

 millet seed which it had swallowed without cracking the husk, in conse- 

 quence of the jolting of the carriage. 



One of the most singular derangements of the system in birds, is the 

 loathing of their artificial food and the impossibility of subsisting on it, 

 which some species, especially the stone chat and redstart show, soon 

 after they become full grown, though they had thriven well upon it and 

 with appetite while younger and advancing in growth. It may possibly 

 arise from the same want of exercise which causes plethora in the tit- 

 mice ; it has not been found practicable to keep the stone chat many 

 months in a cage, though it thrives well for a time. I do not know that 

 it has been tried in a spacious aviary. 



I have not been in the habit of rearing thrushes, but I have been told 

 by a person who reared them for sale, that they frequently dropped in a 

 fit from the perch through fear, on seeing a stranger approach their cage, 

 and died in consequence. Young canaries, if disturbed before they are 

 ready to leave the nest, fly suddenly out in terror, and lose the use of 

 their legs by a paralytic stroke similar to that which is occasioned in the 

 SylviadcB by washing unseasonably, and the affection is absolutely in- 

 curable. The general health does not seem in either case to be injured ; 

 the appetite continues with a cheerful look of the eye, but the bird 

 being utterly helpless and unable to keep itself clean, cannot survive 

 long. I have kept them a fortnight in that state, trying whether a cure 

 was practicable. Superficial observers fancy that the young canaries 

 break their legs in living too soon from the nest; but it is simply para- 

 lysis induced by fear. W. H. 



