126 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER IV 



Selborne, Feb. 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 

 perfectly new to me ; and struck me so forcibly, that I 

 naturally fell into a train of thought that led me to con- 

 sider whether the fact was 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 excellent 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 



