Riis 
3$00.] Cuckoo's Haiching.--Retracation concerning the Mac Gregors, 321 
Te the Editor of the Mouthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
-§ the feafon approaches when that 
oy fingular bird the Cuckoo vifits our 
ifland, perhaps a ftatement of the follow- 
ing fact may induce fome of your readers, 
who have leifure and opportunity, to at- 
tend to its natural hiftory, and communi- 
cate through your publication the -refult 
of their inquiries to the public. 
The regular and beautiful ceconomy of 
the feathered tribe, and their uniform fol1- 
citude to propagate and’ provide for their 
young, led me, even when.a boy, to re- 
ject, as a popular error, the commenly 
received opinion that the Cuckoo always 
commit the care of her offspring to a fof- 
ter parent. It was fome time, however, 
before I could obtain any other than nega- 
tive proof to the contrary. I had exami- 
ned the nefts of the hedge-{parrow, and of 
every other bird faid to receive the unna- 
-turalcharge, invain. But at laf, I was 
politively convinced, that cuckoos do not 
only pair, but mature by incubation, and 
rear with afliduity that offspring which 
they are accufed of abandoning. 
In the midft-of a wood I obferved two 
of thefe birds rife from the ground, with- 
out uttering their ufual cry; uncommon 
circumftances which attracted my atten- 
tion; and onexamining the place, I found, 
at tlre foot of a hagel-bufh, but without 
the leaft appearance of a neft, an egg,.fome- 
swhat larger than that of the thrufh, and 
of the colour of the rook’s. “The next 
day I faw the birds in the fame place; 
and on the. third, another egg depofited | 
with the former. Nearly every day, for 
upwards of afortnight, I raifed one of the 
birds off the neft,. and always faw the 
@ther near. The latter would fometimes, 
but very feldom, cry as he flew. At 
length two young ones were produced, co- 
yered with a daik lead-coloured down, and 
their mouths very la‘ye.’ Every day for 
more than a week I watched the parents 
carrying them food, which I fuppofed in- 
fects, and faw them both feed them alter- 
nately. At the end of that time, both old 
and young were riffing, though the latter 
were not half fledged; and I was left ata 
Jofs to know whether/the parents removed 
_them from a place, where theywere molefted 
by my obfervations, or whether they had 
fallena prey to fome plunderinganimal. 
Itis far from my intention, Mr. Editor, 
to queftion the authenticity of the obfer~ 
vations of Mr. Jenner and other natura- 
lifts ; but I may be allowed to conjefture 
that fuch inftances as they defcribe are 
Very rare ; and that when they dohappen, 
IEis towards’ the end of the feafon, when 
MONTHLY MAG, NO. 52, 
what is called inftiné, but which I fhould 
rather call reafon, then teaches the bird, 
that it cannot remain in this country the 
~ time required to mature its offspring; and 
that thofe which have been occafionally 
met with, inatorpid ftate, during winter, 
are the produce of fuch an accidental incu 
bation of other birds. JI am led to this 
byoobferving that the {wallow tribe occa- 
fionally Jay eggs in their nefts without 
attempting to hatch them; and even, to- 
wards the time of their departure, drop 
them on the ftraw roofs of houles. 
iam &c. i 
i A poor NoRTHUMBRIAN. 
March 25th, 1800. 
eee 
For the Mouthly Magazine. 
RETRACTATION aud APOLOGY conceri-+ 
ing the MAC GREGORS. ; 
HE author of the letter which was 
publifhed on the firft of Auguft laft 
in the London Monthly Magazine, with 
the fictitious fignature of GreGor Mac- 
NAB, acknowledges the faid letter to be 
a grofs, unprovoked, and unmerited libel; 
that it contains the moft injurious mifre- 
prefentations of the Royal-Clan-Alpin re- | 
giment, reviving old calumnies, and de- 
ducing from thefe calumnies inferences 
injurious to the family and the whole Claz 
of Mac GREGOR, whofe conduct and real 
characters are, inall refpeéts, as unexcep- 
tionable as the conduét and character of 
any other Clan or Clafs of his Majefty’s 
fubysects whatfoever. 5 
Qn real confideration, I am fenfible that 
if was unbecoming in me to aim any far= 
cafm at that legiflature which reftored the 
Mac Gregors to their franchifes, feeing, it 
mutt in candour be admitted, that, in the 
indifcriminate pre{cription- of that tribe, 
x 
the rights and liberties of the fubjegts were 
manifeftly violated ; that the long continu- 
ance of their privation of law was an, 
intolerable grievance; and confequently, 
that the legiflature,-which abolifhed the 
pre{cription, acted a virtuous part, in 
the difcharge of a duty, which it owed not 
only-to the injured Mac Gregors, But alfo 
to the people at large, whofe conftituticnal 
freedom, and moft valuable rights and pri- 
vileges, had throush them been infringed, 
eeply penetrated with compunciion for 
having been-burried on by fudden but wz- 
merited refentment againtt a jingle indivt- 
dual, to proititute his pen and mifapply. 
his talents to the unworthy purpofes of de- 
faming the dead, and endeavouring to re- 
kindle extinguifhed and groundle!s prejudi- 
ces againft the innocent living, he fees the 
complicated mifchief of fuch condu&t in” 
colours as trong as thofe in which it can’ 
i 
‘dk ¢ 



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