[ 2 99 ] 
fuch fuppofed analogy could by no means be relied 
upon *. 
It is poffible, however, that fome other birds, 
which are conceived to migrate, may be really tor- 
pid as well as {wallows ; and if it be afked why they 
are not fometimes alfo feen in fuch a date during 
the winter, the anfwer feems to be, that perhaps 
there may be a thoufand fwallows to any other fort 
of bird, and that they commonly are found torpid in 
clutters. 
* I here fuppofe the common notion about the cuckow to be 
true i becaufe both learned and ignorant feern equally to agree 
in the fa£h 
During the prefent fummer, however, a girl brought a full 
feathered young cuckow to a gentleman’s houfe, where I hap- 
pened to be, who faid, that it had been for feveral days before 
fed by another bird of equal fize with itfelf; which therefore 
could not be a hedge-fparrow, or other fmall bird, but the parent 
cuckow. 
I have alfo lately been favoured, by Mr. Pennant, with the 
following extraifl from a manufciipt of Derham’s on inftindtt. 
“ The Rev. Mr. Stafford was walking in Gloffop-dale in the 
t( Peak of Derbyfhire, and faw a cuckow rife from its nett, 
tc which was on the flump -of a tree, that had been fome time 
* 4 felled, fo as much to refemble the colour of the bird. In 
“ this neft were two young cuckows, one of which he 
<c fattened to the ground, by means of a peg and line, and very 
“ frequently, for many days, beheld the old cuckow feed thefe 
“ her young ones.” 
It is not impollible, therefore, that this moft general opinion 
will turn out like the fuppofed effects of the venom of the taran- 
tula ; and, indeed, it is difficult to conceive how fo fmall a bird as 
a hedge-fparrow can feed a cuckow : it is alfo remarkable, that 
the witneffes often vary about the fpecies of fmall bird thus 
employed. 
It is poffible, however, that the cuckow (though it miy not 
hatch its young) may feed them, when grown too large for the 
fofler parent. 
Q^q 2 
if 
