NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 121 



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 peebles, 

 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 a-Topyyi 

 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 wliat species are suitable and con- 

 generous nursing-mothers for its disregarded eggs and 

 young, and may deposit them only under their care, this 

 would be adding wonder to wonder, and instancing, in a 

 fresh manner, that the methods of Providence are not 

 subjected to any mode or rule, but astonish us in new 

 lights, and in various and changeable appearances. 



What was said by a very ancient and sublime writer 

 concerning the defect of natural affection in the ostrich, 

 may be well applied to the bird we are talking of — 



" She is hardened against her young ones, as though they 

 were not hers : 



" Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath 

 he imparted to her understanding."* 



* Job xxxix. 16, 17. 



