ii6 The Natural History 



such as dust themselves, using that method of cleansing 

 their feathers, and ridding themselves of their vermin. 

 As far as I can observe, many birds that dust themselves 

 never wash : and I once thought that those birds that 

 wash themselves would never dust ; but here I find 

 myself mistaken ; for common house-sparrows are great 

 pulveratrices, being frequently seen grovelling and 

 wallowing in dusty roads ; and yet they are great washers. 

 Does not the skylark dust ? 



Query. — Might not Mahomet and his followers take 

 one method of purification from these pulveratrices ? 

 because I find from travellers of credit, that if a strict 

 mussulman is journeying in a sandy desert where no 

 water is to be found, at stated hours he strips off his 

 clothes, and most scrupulously rubs his body over with 

 sand or dust. 



A countryman told me he had found a young fern-owl 

 in the nest of a small bird on the ground ; and that it 

 was fed by the little bird. I went to see this extra- 

 ordinary phenomenon, and found that it was a young 

 cuckoo hatched in the nest of a titlark ; it was become 

 vastly too big for its nest, appearing 



. . in tenui re 

 Islajores pennas nido extendisse . 



and was very fierce and pugnacious, pursuing my finger, 

 as I teased it, for many feet from the nest- and sparring 

 and buffeting with its wings like a game-cock. The dupe 

 of a dam appeared at a distance, hovering about with 

 meat in its mouth, and expressing the greatest solicitude. 



In July I saw several cuckoos skimming over a large 

 pond ; and found, after some observation, that they were 

 feeding on the libeiiulie, or dragon-flies ; some of which 

 they caught as they settled on the weeds, and some as 

 they were on the wing. Notwithstanding what Linnaeus 

 says, I cannot be induced to believe that they are birds 

 of prey 



'Ihis district affords some birds that are hardly ever 

 heard of at Selborne. In the first place considerable 

 flocks of cross-beaks {ioxice cio'virostrcd) have appeared 



