OF SELBOBNE. 
147 
for it. When I came to recollect and inquire, I could not 
find that any cuckoo had ever been seen in these parts, 
except in the nest of the wagtail, the hedge-sparrow, the 
titlark, the whitethroat, and the redbreast, all soft-billed 
insectivorous birds. The excellent Mr. Willughbj mentions 
CUCKOO. 
the nest of the ring-dove (Palumhus) , and of the chaffinch 
[Fringilla), 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 sa^w himself 
a wagtail feeding a cuckoo.^ It appears hardly possible 
in October, one contained a large worm, and two or three seeds of 
different kinds ; the other two, insect larvas (Ascaris-like in form). 
Fragments of stone, of which some were the size of small peas, were 
found in all, the last-noted one being filled with them. 
In almost all moist soils, and in cow-dung, peculiar small thm worms 
of a uniform deep red colour (not at all the same species found in 
uplands and gardens) occur, and during slight frosts they come up to 
the surface in thousands. During such weather, both woodcocks and 
snipe make these their chief food, and are then in first-rate condi- 
tion. — Ed. 
1 In "The Ibis" for 1865, p. 178, Mr. Dawson Rowley, on the 
authority of continental as well as British authors, has published a list 
