OF SELBORNE. 211 



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 possi- 

 ble 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 fur- 

 ther appear that this simple bird, when di- 

 vested of that natural (rro^yvi that seems to 

 raise the kind in general above themselves, 

 and inspire them with extraordinary de- 

 grees of cunning and address, may be still 



p 2 



