natural Bfory of the Cuckoo. 23 5 
and fed by them at the time it was fhot (though it was nearly 
of the fize and fulnefs of plumage of the parent-bird) I found 
in its ftomach the following fubflances. 
Flies and Beetles of various kinds. 
Small Snails, with their fhells unbroken. 
Gralhoppers. 
Caterpillars. 
Part of a Horfe-bean. 
A vegetable fubflance refembling bits of tough grafs, rolled 
into a ball. 
The feeds of a vegetable that refembled thofe of the goofe» 
grafs. 
In the flomach of one fed by Hedge-fparrows, the contents 
were almotl entirely vegetable ; lucli as wheat, fmall vetches, 
&c. But this was the only inftance of the kind I had ever 
feen. as thefe birds, in general, feed the young Cuckoo with 
fcarcely any thing but animal food. However, it ferved to 
clear up a point which before had fomewhat puzzled me ; for 
having found the Cuckoo’s egg in the nefl of a green linnet, 
which begins very early to feed its young with vegetable food, 
I was apprehenfive, till I faw this faft, that this bird would 
have been an unfit fofler- parent for the young Cuckoo. 
The Titlark, I obferve, feeds it principally with Graf- 
hoppsrs. 
But the mofl lingular fubflance, fo often met with in the Ho- 
rn achs of young Cuckoos, is a ball of hair curioufly wound 
up. I have found it of various fizes, from that of a pea to 
that of a fmall nutmeg. It feems to be compofed chiefly of 
Horfe-hairs, and from the refemblance it bears to the infide 
covering of the nefl, I conceive the bird fwallows it while a 
nettling. In the ftomachs of old Cuckoos I have often feen 
Vol. LXXVI1I. K k tnafFes 
