80 CUCKOO. 



LETTER XXX, 



TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, February 19, 1770. 



DEAR SIR, Your observation, that "the cuckoo does not 

 deposit its egg indiscriminately in the nest of the first bird that 

 comes in its way, but probably looks out a nurse in some 

 degree congenerous, with whom to intrust its young," is per- 

 fectly new to me ; and struck me so forcibly, that 1 naturally 

 fell into a train of thought that led me to consider whether the 

 fact were so, and what reason there was for it. When I 

 came to recollect and inquire, I could not find that any cuckoo 

 had ever been seen in these parts, except in the nest of the 

 wagtail, the hedge-sparrow, the titlark, the white-throat, and 

 the red-breast, all soft-billed insectivorous birds. The excel- 

 lent Mr Willughby mentions the nest of the palumbus, (ring- 

 dove,) and of the fringilla, (chaffinch,) birds that subsist on 

 acorns and grains, and such hard food ; but then he does not 

 mention them as of his own knowledge ; but says afterwards, 

 that he saw himself a wagtail feeding a cuckoo. It appears 

 hardly possible that a soft-billed bird should subsist on the 

 same food with the hard-billed ; for the former have thin 

 membranaceous stomachs suited to their soft food ; while the 

 latter, the granivorous tribe, have strong muscular gizzards, 

 which, like mills, grind, by the help of small gravels and 

 pebbles, what is swallowed. This proceeding of the cuckoo, 

 of dropping its eggs as it were by chance, is such a monstrous 

 outrage on maternal affection, one of the first great dictates of 

 nature, and such a violence on instinct, that, had it only been 

 related of a bird in the Brazils, or Peru, it would never have 

 merited our belief. But yet, should it farther appear that 

 this simple bird, when divested of that natural avogyjij that 

 seems to raise the kind in general above themselves, and 

 inspire them with extraordinary degrees of cunning and 

 address, may be still endued with a more enlarged faculty of 

 discerning what species are suitable and congenerous nursing 



ascertained ; but we find from Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary r , 

 second edition, that they are very fond of worms, as stated in the following 

 paragraph : "A woodcock, in our menagerie, very soon discovered and 

 drew forth every worm in the ground, which was dug up to enable it to 

 be done ; and worms put into a large garden pot, covered with, earth, five 

 or "six inches deep, are always cleared bv the next morning, without one 

 being left. ED." 



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