this extraordinary phenomenon, and found that it 

 was a young cuckoo hatched in the nest of a titlark : 

 it was become vastly too big for its nest, appear- 

 ing to have its large wings extended beyond the 

 nest," — 



" in tenui re 



Majores pennas indo extendisse " 



and was very fierce and pugnacious, pursuing m.v 

 finger, as I teased it, for many feet from the nest, and 

 sparring and buffeting with its wings like a game- 

 cock. The dupe of a dam appeared at a distance, 

 hovering about with meat in its mouth, and express- 

 ing the greatest solicitude. 



In July I saw several cuckoos skimming over a 

 large pond ; and found, after some observation, that 

 they were feeding on the libclhdce, or dragon-flies ; 

 some of which they caught as they settled on the 

 weeds, and some as they were on the wing. Not- 

 withstanding what Linnaeus says, I cannot be in- 

 duced to believe that they are birds of prey. 



This district affords some birds that are hardlv 

 ever heard of at Selborne. In the first place con- 

 siderable flocks of cross-beaks {Loxice ctirvirostrcE) 

 have appeared this summer in the pine-groves be- 

 longing to this house : the water-ousel is said to 

 haunt the mouth of the Lewes river, near Newhaven: 

 and the Cornish chough builds, I know, all along the 

 chalky cliffs of the Sussex shore. 



I was greatly pleased to see little parties of ring- 



145 



