OF NATURAL HISTORY. 323 



It is a fingular, though a well attefted fadt, that the cuckow makes 

 no neft, and neither hatches nor feeds her own young. ' The hedge- 



* fparrow,' fays Mr Willoughby, ' is the cuckow 's nurfe, but not 



* the hedge-fparrow only, but alfo ling-doves, larks, finches, i 

 ' myCelf, with many others, have feen a wag-tail feeding a young 

 ' cuckow. The cuckow h^rfelf builds no neft ; but having found 

 ' the neft of fome little bird, flie either devours or deftroys the eggs 

 ' fhe there finds, and, in the room thereof, lays one of her own, and 

 ' fo forfakes it. The filly bird returning, fits on this egg, hatches 



* it, and, with a great deal of care and toil, broods, feeds, and che- 



* rifhes the young cuckow for her own, until it be grown up and 



* able to fly and fhift for itfelf. Which thing feems fo ftrange,, 

 ' monftrous, and abfurd, that for my part I cannot fufEciently won- 



* der there fliould be fuch an example in Nature j nor could I ever 



* have been induced to believe that iuch a thing had been done by 



* Nature's inftindt, had I not with mine own eyes feen it. For Na- 



* ture, in qther things, is wont conftantly to obferve one and the 



* fame law and order, agreeable to the higheft reafon and prudence; 



* which in this cafe is, that the dams make nefts for themfelves, if 



* need be, fit upon their own eggs, and bring up their own young 

 •• after they are hatched *.' This oeconomy, in the hiftory of the 

 cuckow, is not only fingular, but feems to contradidl one of the 

 moft univerfal laws eftablifhed among animated beings, and parti- 

 cularly among the feathered tribes, namely, the hatching and rear- 

 ing of their offspring. Still, however, like the oftrich in very warm 

 climates, though the cuckow neither hatches nor feeds her young, 

 ftie places her eggs in fituations where they are both hatched and 

 her offspring brought to maturity. Here the ftupidity of the one 

 animal make« it a dupe to the rapine and chicane of the other; for 

 the cuckow always deftroys the eggs of the fmall bird before fhe 



depofits her own. 



S f 2. Mca 



* Willoughby's Ornithology, pag. 98. 



