such fruit ; so that these birds apparently subsist on 

 insects and fruits : nor was there the least appear- 

 ance of bones, feathers, or fur to support the idle 

 notion of their being birds of prey. 



The sternum in this bird seemed to us to be re- 

 markably short, between which and the anus lay the 

 crop, or craw, and immediately behind that the bow- 

 els against the back-bone. 



It must be allowed, as this anatomist observes, 

 that the crop placed just upon the bowels must, 

 especially when full, be in a very uneasy situation 

 during the business of incubation ; yet the test will 

 be to examine whether birds that are actually known 

 to sit for certain are not formed in a similar man- 

 ner. This inquiry I proposed to myself to make with 

 a fern-owl, or goat-sucker, as soon as opportunity 

 offered : because, if their formation proves the same, 

 the reason for incapacity in the cuckoo will be 

 allowed to have been taken up somewhat hastily. 



Not long after a fern-owl was procured, which, 

 from its habit and shape, we suspected might resem- 

 ble the cuckoo in its internal construction. Nor 

 were our suspicions ill-grounded ; for upon dissec- 

 tion, the crop, or craw, also lay behind the sternum, 

 immediately on the viscera, between them and the 

 skin of the belly. It was bulky, and stuffed hard 

 with large phalcence, moths of several sorts, and their 

 eggs, which no doubt had been forced out of those 

 insects by the action of swallowing. 



71 



