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 granivor- 

 ous 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 arop'yrj that seems to raise 

 the kind in general above themselves, and inspire 

 them with extraordinary degrees of cunning and ad- 

 dress, may be still endued with a more enlarged 

 faculty of discerning what species are suitable and 

 congenerous 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 



