Edward Jenner as Naturalist. 
59 
the youth might have, so to speak, drawn upon his imagi¬ 
nation. I do not myself, however, believe that any such 
explanation is required. I have carefully examined Jenner’s 
paper, and in it throughout he speaks of himself in the first 
person singular. His opportunities for observation were in 
this matter equal to Waterton’s own, for the cuckoo is a 
common bird in that part of England, and to this it must be 
added that Jenner’s closeness of observation and veracity 
in all other matters seem never to have been questioned. 
He states distinctly that he has himself repeatedly seen the 
young cuckoo, within twenty-four hours of its being hatched, 
throw from the nest the hedge-sparrow’s eggs, and even 
its young He still further speaks of the infant cuckoo 
being able to eject a young bird as large as itself, the hedge- 
sparrow being smaller. He instances two cases where a 
pair of cuckoo’s eggs were laid in the same nest, possibly 
by different birds In one of them there were also two 
hedge-sparrow’s eggs, one of which was hatched. Within 
a few hours after the birth of the two cuckoos, on June 
27, 1787, these were both thrown out, and then began, says 
Jenner, “ a very remarkable contest. The combatants (the 
young cuckoos) alternately appeared to have the advantage, 
as each carried the other several times to the top of the 
nest, and then sank down again, oppressed by the weight 
of its burden; till at length, after various efforts, the strong¬ 
er prevailed, and was afterwards brought up by the hedge- 
sparrows.” It will doubtless be the verdict of scientists 
that Waterton’s attack, if not instigated by jealousy, as was 
that made upon Jenner, regarding vaccination, by Dr. 
Pearson of London, may have been through dislike of his 
occupying what he may have hoped to make his own pecu¬ 
liar field, and that his avoiding Jenner’s name directly 
while using language the object of which could not be mis¬ 
understood, was wholly unjustifiable. During this paper 
upon the cuckoo, Jenner states that he should publish also 
upon the Migration of Birds, an intention that was not 
realized until thirty-five years subsequently. 
