OFSELBORNE. 1^3 
thofe birds, I never could difcover the lead degree of rivalry or 
hoftility between the fpecies. 
Ray remarks that birds of the gallina order, as cocks and hens, 
partridges, and pheafants, &c. are pidveratrices, fuch as dud 
themfelves, ufing that method of cleanfing their feathers, and 
ridding themfelves of their vermin. As far as I can obferve, many 
birds that dull themfelves never wafli : and I once thought thai 
thofe birds that wafli themfelves would never dull ; but here I find 
myfelf miftaken •, for common houfe-fparrovvs are gv<izt puheratricej, 
being frequently feen grovelling and wallowing in dufty roads ; 
and yet they are great wafliers. Does not the Ikylark dull ? 
^ery. Might not Mahomet and his followers take one method 
of purification from thefe pidveratrices ? becaufe I find from travel- 
lers of credit, that if a furicfl mulTulman is journeying in a fandy 
defert where no water is to be found, at ftated hours heftrips off his 
clothes, and moft fcrupuloufly rubs his body over with fand or 
duft. 
A countryman told me he had found a young fern-ozvl in tlie 
nefl of a fmall bird on the ground ; and that it was fed by the 
little bird. I v/ent to fee this extraordinary phenomenon, and 
found that it was a young cuckoo hatched in the neil of a titlark : 
it was become vailly too big for it's neil, appearing 
— — — — — in tenui ra 
Majores pennas nido extendifle — — 
and was very fierce and pugnacious, purfuing my finger, as I 
teazed it, for many feet from the neft, and fparring and buifetting 
with it's wings like a game-cock. The dupe of a dam appeared 
at a difhance, hovering about with meat in it's mouthj and expref- 
fmg the greatcil folicitude. 
