no The Natural History 



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 disre- 

 garded 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 Provi- 

 dence are not subjected to any mode or rule, but 

 astonish us in new lights, and in various and changeable 

 apj)earances. 



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 agai?ist her young ones^ as though 

 they were not hers : 



'' Because God hath deprived her of wisdo?n, neither 

 hath he iinparted 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, etc. 



LETTER V 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



Selborne, April 12, 1770 

 Dear Sir, 



I heard many birds of several species sing last year 

 itfter 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 

 goldhnch, the common linnet, are all undoubted instances 

 of the truth of what I advance. 



If this severe season does not interrupt the regularity 

 of the summer migrations, the black-cap will be here in 



^ Job xxxix. 16, 17. 



