3.28 THE THILOSOPHY 



< and, in the room thereof, lays one of her own^ and fo for^ 



< fakes it. The filly bird returning, fits on this egg, hatches 



< it, and, with a great deal of care 'and toil, broods, feeds, and 



< cherifhes the young cuckow for her own, until it be grown 

 ^ up and able to fly and fhift for itfelf. Which thing feems 



< fo ftrange, monftrous, and abfurd, that for my part I cannot 



< fufiiciently wonder there fliould be fuch an example in Na- 

 * ture ; nor could I ever have been induced to believe that 



< fuch a thing had been done by Nature's inftindt, had I not 



< with mine own eyes feen it. For Nature, in other things, 



< is wont conftantly to obferve one and the fame law and or- 



< der, agreeable to thehigheft reafon and prudence; which in 



< this cafe is, that the dams make nefls for themfelves, if need 



< be, fit upon their own eggs, and bring up their own young 



< after they are hatched*.* This oeconomy, in the hiflory 

 of the cuckow, is not only fingular, but feems to con- 

 tradict one of the mofb univerfal laws eftabhllied among ani- 

 mated beings, and particularly among the feathered tribes, 

 namely, the hatching and rearing of their offspring. Still, 

 however, like the oftrich in very warm climates, though the 

 cuckow neither hatches nor feeds her young, Ihe places her 

 ^ggs in fituations where they are both hatched and her ofF- 

 fpring brought to maturity. Here the ftupidity of the one 

 animal makes it a dupe to the rapine and chicane of the other ; 

 for the cuckow always deftroys the eggs of the fmall bird 

 before £he depofits her own. 



Moft of the pafTerine or fmall tribes build their nefts in 

 hedges, fhrubs, or bufhes ; though fome of them, as the lark 

 and the goat-fucker, build upon the ground. The nefts of 

 fmall birds are more delicate in their flru6lure and contriv- 

 ance than thofe of the larger kinds. As the fize of their 

 bodies, and likewife that of their eggs, are fmaller, the mate- 

 rials of which their nefls are compofed are generally warmero 

 * Willoughby's Ornithology, page 98. 



