NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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 oropy^ 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.* 



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 according as opportunity 

 offers ? I am, &c. 



* We do not know exactly the instinctive motive which influences the cuckoo in the 

 deposition of its eggs. Locality in this may have its influence and the cuckoo frequenting 

 a woodland and cultivated district, may seek other fostermothers from those which visit a 

 more open country. Upon the edges of cultivated grounds, bordering on a subalpine 

 district where there is natural copse-wood ; and there is no locality more in favour with the 

 cuck >o ; the nest of the titlark, A nthus pratensis, is that most frequently selected : that of 

 the ring-dove as quoted above, is a most unlikely resort to be chosen ; an unerring instinct 

 guides the parent ; the dissimilarity of the egg would have been at once discovered, and 

 the important fact of the intruder requiring to be the strongest, and to keep the nest ror 

 himself would in this case most probably be reversed. We have known the egg of the 

 cuckoo to be deposited in the nest of the chaffinch, to which Mr. White's objection will 

 not stand, for h? had overlooked the fact that all the finches, and some others,_ which are 

 commonly called " hard-billed birds," feed their young upon insects, caterpillars, &c. ; 

 and during summer are themselves most useful to the gardener to keep in check many of 

 his npst troublesome enemies. See also White's remarks on the cuckoo, Lettei VII. to 

 Barrington. p. 135. 



+ Job xxxix. 1 6, tj. 



