126 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
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, 
notwithstanding so many young are hatched daily. Sure I am 
that it is far otherwise with respect to the swallow tribe, which 
increases prodigiously as the summer advances : and I saw, at 
the time mentioned, many hundreds of young wagtails on the 
banks of the Cherwell, 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, while the 
young are concealed by the leaves ? 
Many times have I had the curiosity to open the stomachs 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. t I am, &c. 
LETTER IV. To. the Hon, DAINES BARRINGTON. 
DEAR SIR, Selborne Feb, 19, 1770. 
Your 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 forci- 
bly, that I 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 
* The tree-pipit, or "titlark," does not usually sing by night even in confinement, though it oc- 
casionally chirps a little when excited by the migratory impulse. I have kept one for several years, 
which still continues stout and healthy, and is a vigorous songster. — Ed. 
t The food of these birds is of course earth worms, which dissolve very rapidly in the stomach, 
and which I have myself kept them upon in captivity. The quantity they consume is very con- 
siderable. £d. 
