152 FERN-OWLS CUCKOOS. 



Ray remarks that birds of the galling order, as 

 cocks and hens, partridges and pheasants, &c. are 

 pulveratrices , such as dust themselves, using that 

 method of cleaning their feathers, and ridding 

 themselves of their vermin. As far as I can ob- 

 serve, 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 grovel- 

 ling 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 pulve- 

 ratrices ? 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 scrupu- 

 lously 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 extraordinary phenomenon, and found that 

 it was a young cuckoo hatched in the nest of a tit- 

 lark ; it was become vastly too big for its nest, 

 appearing 



Majores pennas nido extendisse,''- 



and was very fierce and pugnacious, pursuing my 

 finger, as I teased it, for many feet from its nest, 

 and sparring and buffeting with its wings like a 

 game-cock, the dupe of a dam appearing 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 libellulce, or dragon- 



