[ 2 4 6 ] 



Ijparxow do not build upon the ground, and it is believed that 

 no one ever pretended to have found a cuckow's egg in the neft of 

 a lark, which, indeed, is fo placed. It is likewife to be ob- 

 ferved, that the witneffes often vary with regard to the bird in 

 whofe neff. the cuckow's egg is depofited c ; and Ariftotle himfelf, 

 in the feventh chapter of his fixth book, confines the fofter- 

 parents to the wood-pigeon and hedge- fparrow, but chief! y the 

 former. 



In the age d of Ariftotle is confidered, when he began to collect 

 the materials for his Natural Hiftory, by the encouragement of 

 Alexander after his conquefts in India % it is highly improbable 

 he fliould have written from his own obfervations. He therefore 

 feems to have haftily put down the accounts of the perfons who 

 brought him the different fpecimens from moft, parts of the then 

 Jknown world. 



Inaccurate, however, and contradictory as thefe reports often 

 turn out, it was the beft compilation which the ancients could 

 have recourfe to ; and Pliny therefore profefles only to abridge 

 him, in which he often does not do juftice to the original. 



Whatever was afferted by Ariftotle, is well known to have been 

 moft implicitly believed, till the laft century; and I am convinced 



c Thus Linnasus fuppofes it (in the Fauna Suecica) to be the white 

 wagtail, which bird builds in the banks of rivers, or roofs of houfes, 

 (See Zinanni, p. 51.) where it is believed no young cuckow was ever 

 found. 



d He did not leave the fchool of Plato till the age of thirty-eight (or, 

 as fome fay, forty) ; after which, fome years patTed before he became 

 Alexander's preceptor, who was then but fourteen : nor could he have 

 written his Natural Hiftory, probably, till twelve years after this, as 

 Pliny flates 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 obfervations of others. 



! Pliny, L. viii. c. 16. 



that 



