NATURAL HISTORY 



OP 



SELBORNE. 



Letter xxx. , 



TO THE 



HONOURABLE DAINES BARRII^GTON^ 



DEAR SIR; Selborne, April 3, 1776. 



Monsieur Herissant, a French anato- 

 mist, seems persuaded that he has disco- 

 vered the reason why cuckoos do not hatcK 

 their own eggs ; the impediment, he sup- 

 poses, arises from the internal structure of 

 their parts, which incapacitates them for 

 incubation. According to this gentlemart, 

 the crop, or craw, of a cuckoo does not lie 

 before the sternum at the bottom of the 

 I jyoL. II. B 



