i26 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER IV. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNK, Pel. igt/i, 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 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 

 white-throat, and the redbreast, all soft-billed insectivorous birds. 

 The excellent Mr. Willughby mentions the nest of the Pahunbus 

 (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 



