[ 323 ] 
found a cuckow’s egg in the nefl of a lark, which, 
indeed, is fo placed. 
I have before obferved, that the ,witneffes often 
vary with regard to the bird in which the cuckow’s 
egg is depofited and Ariftotle himfelf, in the fe- 
venth chapter of his fixth book, confines the fofter- 
parents to the wood-pigeon and hedge- fparrow, but 
chiefly the former. 
If the age •f* of Ariftotle is confidered, when he 
began to colledt the materials for his Natural Hiftory, 
by the encouragement of Alexander after his con- 
quefts in India it is highly improbable he fhould 
have written from his own obfervations. He there- 
fore feems to have haftily put down the accounts of 
the perfons who brought him the different fpecimens 
from moft parts of the then known world. 
Inaccurate, however, and contradictory as thefe re- 
ports often turn out, it was the befc compilation 
which the ancients could have recourfe to ; and Pliny 
kow ; yet, if it is recolledted that this bird lives on feeds, it 
is probable that the cuckow, whofe nourifhment is infedls, 
would either be foon ftarved, or incapable of digefting what was 
brought by the fofter-parent. This objection is equally appli- 
cable to the if it is our greenfinch. 
* Thus Linnaeus fuppofes it (in the Fauna Suecica) to be the 
white wagtail, which bird builds in the banks of rivers, or 
roofs of houfes, (See Zmanni, p. 51.) where it is believed no 
young cuckow was ever found. 
f He did not leave the fchool of Plato till the age of thirty— 
eight (or, as fome fay, forty) ; after which, fome years palled 
before he became Alexander’s preceptor, who was then but 
fourteen : nor could he have written his Natural Hiftory, pro- 
bably, till twelve years after this, as Pliny ftates that fpecimens 
were fent to him by Alexander, from his conquefts in India. 
Ariftotle therefore muft have been nearly fixty, v/hen he began 
this great work, and confequently muft haye defcribed from the 
©bfervations of others. 
t Pliny, L. viii. c. 16. 
T t 2 
there- 
