t 323 ] 



found a cuckow's egg in the ncft of a lark, which, 

 indeed, is fo placed. 



I have before obferved, that the witnefTes often 

 vary with regard to the bird in which the euckow's 

 egg is depofited*; and Ariftotle himfelf, in the fe- 

 venth chapter of his fixth book, confines the fofter- 

 parents to the wood-pigeon and hedge- fparrow, but 

 chiefly the former. 



If the age -f- of Ariftotle is confidered, when he 

 began to coilecVthe materials for his Natural Hiftory, 

 by the encouragement of Alexander after his con- 

 quefts in India J, it is highly improbable he mould 

 have written from his own obfervations. He there-- 

 fore feems to have haftily put down the accounts of 

 the perfons who brought him the different ipecimens 

 from raoft parts of the then known world* 



Inaccurate, however, and contradictory as thefe re- 

 ports often turn out* it was the befc compilation 

 which the ancients could have recourfe to ; and Pliny 



kow ; yet, if it is recollected that this bird lives on keds, it 

 is probable that the cuckow, whofe nourifbment is infecls„ 

 vyould either be loon ftarved, or incapable of digefting what was 

 brought by the fofter-parent. This objection is equally appli- 

 cable to the ^Xuoigt if it is our greenfinch. 



* Thus Linnaeus fuppofes it (in the Fauna Suecica) to be the 

 white wagtail, which bird builds in the banks of rivers, of 

 roofs of houfes, (See Zinanni, p. 51.) where it is believed no 

 young cuckow was ever found. 



. f He did not leave the fchool of Plato till the age of thirty- 

 eight (or, as fome fay, forty) 5 after which, fome years paiTed 

 before he became Alexander's preceptor-, who was then but 

 fourteen: nor could he have written his Natural Hiftory, pro- 

 bably, till twelve years after this, as Pliny ftates that fpecimens 

 were fent to him by Alexander, from his conquefts in India. 

 Ariftotle therefore muft have been nearly fixty, when he began 

 this great work, and confequently muft have defcribed from the 

 -«bfervations of others. 

 X Pliny, L» viii. c. 16. 



Tt-2 there- 



