94 
THE NATURAL HISTORY 
[LETT. 
The sedge-bird lias a surprising variety of notes resembling 
the song of several other birds ; but then it has also a hurrying 
manner, not at all to its advantage : it is notwithstanding a 
delicate polyglot. 
It is new to me that titlarks in cages sing in the night ; per- 
haps only caged birds do so. I once knew a tame redbreast in 
a cage that always sang as long as candles were in the room ; 
but in their wild state no one supposes they sing in the night. 
I should be almost ready to doubt the fact, that there are to be 
seen much fewer birds in July than in any former month, not- 
withstanding so many young are hatched daily. Sure I am that 
it is far otherwise with respect to the swallow tribes, which 
increase prodigiously as the summer advances. I saw, at the 
time mentioned, many hundreds of young wagtails on the banks 
of the Gherwell, which almost covered the meadows. If the 
matter appears as you say in the other species, may it not be 
owing to the dams being engaged in incubation, w^hile the young 
are concealed by the leaves ? 
Many times have I had the curiosity to open the stomach of 
woodcocks and snipes ; but nothing ever occurred that helped 
to explain to me what their subsistence might be : all that I 
could ever find was a soft mucus, among which lay many 
pellucid small gravels. 
Sklborne, Jan. 15, 1770. 
LETTER XXX. 
TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRTKGTON. 
YouE observation that "the cuckoo does not deposit its egg 
indiscriminately in the nest of the first bird that comes in its 
way, but probably looks out a nurse in some degree congenerous, 
with whom to intrust its young," is perfectly new to me ; and 
struck me so forcibly, that T naturally fell into a train of thought 
that led me to consider whether the fact was so, and what reason 
there was for it. "When I came to recollect and inquire, I could 
