for ten days, when they could fly, the whole brood died, by 

 which he was fo difcouraged as never to have repeated the ex- 

 periment, though it fhould feem, that having lived ten days 

 they might have furvived as many months, and perhaps years. 



' Ae thefe birds were martins, it perhaps might have been ex- 

 pected that they mould have been torpid during the winter; but 

 this flee ping frate does not take place with fome other animals 

 of the lame habits, when they are fupplied with food and warmth, 

 witnefs the bear, the viper, and the common fly, which under 

 thefe circumftances are not only awake, but chearful and alert. 



It is fcarely neceffary to refute another vulgar error, which feems 

 to have taken its rife from what is mentioned by Pliny, as he fup- 

 pofes the cuckow to become a hawk at the approach of autumn b , 

 and which poffibly is alfo the occafion of the notion that it preys 

 upon fmall birds at the fame time of the year ; this aflertion being 

 likewife advanced by the fame authority. 



Befides other material diftinctions, the cuckow hath two claws 

 before and two behind, whereas every hawk hath three before 

 and only one behind. It is indeed rather furprifing that this 

 difference fhould have efcaped Linnzeus, when he gravely aflerts, 

 that this metamorphofis does not take place ; but it is remark- 

 able that the Swedifh ornithologift conliders the touraco c as a 

 cuckow, which hath three claws before, and only one behind. 



Another notion prevails, that the froth feen on many plants 

 is occafioned by this bird, and it is therefore termed cuckow /pit ; 



b There is likewife a prevailing notion, equally ill founded, that a 

 land rail becomes a water-rail, which is at once refuted by the great 

 difference between the bills of thefe two birds. 



c A moft beautiful bird of Africa, of which there are two fpecimens 

 in Sir Alhton Lever's Mufeum. 



this 



