CUCKOO. 607 



(i The cuckoo," says he, " in some parts of England, as I am 

 well informed by a very distinct and ingenious gentleman, hatches 

 and educates her young ; whilst in other parts she builds no nest, 

 but uses that of some lesser bird, generally either of the wagtail or 

 hedge-sparrow, and depositing one egg in it, takes no further care 

 of her progeny. 



M. Herissant thought, that he had discovered the reason why 

 cuckoos do not incubate their own eggs, by having observed that 

 the crop or stomach of the cuckoo was placed behind the sternum, 

 or breast-bone, and he thence fancied, that this would render in- 

 cubation disagreeable or impracticable. Hist.de PAcad. Royal. 

 1752. But Mr. White, in his Natural History of Selbourn asserts, 

 that on dissecting a fern-owl he found the situation of the crop or 

 stomach of that bird to be behind the sternum, like that of the 

 cuckoo, and supposes that many other birds may be organized in 

 the same manner. And, as the fern-owl incubates and hatches her 

 own eggs, he rationally concludes, that this structure of the bird 

 cannot be the cause of her want of maternal storge. 



As the Rev. Mr. Stafford was walking in Glosop Dale, in the 

 Peak of Derbyshire, he saw a cuckoo rise from its nest. The nest 

 was on the stump of a tree, that had been some time felled, among 

 some chips that were in part turned grey, so as much to resemble 

 the colour of the bird ; in this nest were two young cuckoos : ty- 

 ing a string about the leg of one of them, he pegged the other end 

 of it to the ground, and very frequently for many days beheld the 

 old cuckoo feed these young, as he stood very near them. 



The following extract of a letter from the Rev. Mr. Wilmot, of 

 Morley, near Derby, strengthens the truth of the fact above men- 

 tioned, of the cuckoo sometimes making a nest, and hatching her 

 own young. 



In the beginning of July, 1792, I was attending some labour- 

 ers on my farm, when one of them said to me, ii There is a bird's 

 nest upon one of the Coal-slack Hills ; the bird is now sitting, and 

 is exactly like a cuckoo. They say that cuckoos never hatch their 

 own eggs, otherwise I should have sworn it was one." He took 

 me to the spot, it was an open fallow ground : the bird was upon 

 the nest, I stood and observed her some time, and was perfectly 

 satisfied it was a cuckoo ; I then put my hand towards her, and 

 she almost let me touch her before she rose from the nest, which 

 she apeared io quit with great uneasiness, skimming over the 



