XXX.] OF SELBORNE. 
not find that any cuckoo liad ever been seen in these parts, 
except in the nest of the wagtail, the hedge-sparrow, the titlarlv, 
the whitethroat, and the redbreast, all soft-billed insectivorous 
birds. The excellent Mr. Willughby mentions the nest of the 
2^1107111)108 (ring-dove) and of tlie fringilla (cliaffinch), birds 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 possible that a soft-billed bird should subsist on 
THE CUCKOO. 
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. 
