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THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 109g 
_ nursing-mothers for its disregarded eggs and young, and may 
_ deposit them only under their care, this would be adding 
wonder to wonder, and instancing, in a fresh manner, that the 
methods of Providence are not subjected to any mode or rule, 
but astonish us in new lights, and in various and changeable 
appearances. 
What was said by a very ancient and sublime writer concern- 
ing the defect of natural affection in the ostrich, may be well 
applied to the bird we are talking of : 
“She is hardened against her young ones, as though they 
_were not hers: 
“Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath 
He imparted to her understanding.” ? 
Query. — Does each female cuckoo lay but one egg in a 
_ . season, or does she drop several in different nests according as 
opportunity offers ?” 
[Regarding the food of the ring-dove above referred to, White 
has the following particulars in his Odservations on Nature : — 
“One of my neighbors shot a ring-dove on an evening as it 
_ was returning from feed and going to roost. When his wife 
had picked and drawn it, she found its craw stuffed with the 
most nice and tender tops of turnips. ‘These she washed and 
boiled, and so sat down to a choice and delicate plate of greens, 
culled and provided in this extraordinary manner. 
“Hence we may see that graminivorous birds, when grain 
fails, can subsist on the leaves of vegetables. ‘There is reason 
to suppose that they would not long be healthy without; for 
turkeys, though corn fed, delight in a variety of plants, such 
__as cabbage, lettuce, endive, etc., and poultry pick much grass ; 
__ while geese live for months together on commons by grazing 
1 Job xxxix. 16, 17. 
2 There is no doubt that the cuckoo does lay more than one egg in a 
AS 
