108 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
LETTER IV. 
SELBORNE, feb. roth, 1770. 
Your observation that “the cuckoo does not deposit its egg 
indiscriminately in the nest of the first bird that comes in its 
way, but probably looks out a nurse in some degree congener- 
ous, with whom to intrust its young,” is probably new to me; 
and struck me so forcibly, that I naturally fell into a train of 
thought that led me to consider whether the fact was so, and 
what reason there was for it. When I came to recollect and 
inquire, I could not find that any cuckoo had ever been seen 
in these parts, except in the nest of the wagtail, the hedge- 
sparrow, the titlark, the white-throat, and the redbreast, all 
soft-billed, insectivorous birds. ‘The excellent Mr. Willughby 
mentions the nest of the ring-dove, and of the chaffinch, 
birds that subsist on acorns and grains, and such hard food : 
but then he does not mention them as of his own knowledge, 
but says afterwards that he saw himself a wagtail feeding a 
cuckoo. It appears hardly possible that a soft-billed bird 
should subsist on the same food with the hard-billed: for the 
former have thin membranaceous stomachs suited to their soft 
food; while the latter, the granivorous tribe, have strong 
muscular gizzards, which, like mills, grind, by the help of small 
gravels and pebbles, what is swallowed. ‘This proceeding of 
the cuckoo, of dropping its eggs as it were by chance, is such 
a monstrous outrage on maternal affection, one of the first great 
dictates of nature, and such a violence of instinct, that, had it 
only been related of a bird in the Brazils, or Peru, it would 
never have merited our belief. But yet, should it farther 
appear that this simple bird, when divested of that natural 
parental love that seems to raise the kind in general above 
themselves, and inspire them with extraordinary degrees of 
cunning and address, may be still endued with a more enlarged 
faculty of discerning what species are suitable and congenerous 
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