wards that he faw himfélf a wagtail feeding a cuckoo. It appears
hardly po liable that a foft-billed bird fbould. fubfift on the
fame food with the hard-billed: for the former have thin membranaceous
ftomachs fuited to their foft food; while the latter, the
granivorous tribe, havc-ftrong mufcular gizzards, which, like mills,
grind, by the help of fmall gravels and pebbles, what is fwallowed.
This proceeding of the cuckoo, of dropping it’s eggs as it were by
chance, is fuch a monftrous outrage on maternal affedtion, one of
the firft great dictates of nature ; and fuch a violence on inftinCt;
that, had it only been related of a bird in the Brajils, or Peru, it
would never have merited our belief. But yet, fhould it farther
appear that this fimple bird, when divefted of that natural trocyn
that feems to raife the kind in general above themfelves, and infpire
them with extraordinary degrees of cunning and addrefs, may be
ftill endued with a more enlarged faculty of difcerning what fpecies
are fuitable and congenerous nuriing-mothers for it’s difregarded
eggs and young, and may depofit them only under their care,
this would be adding wonder to wonder, and inftancing, in a frefh
manner, that the methods of Providence are not fubjefted to any
mode or rule, but aftonilh us in new lights, and in various and
changeable appearances.
What was faid by a very ancient and fublime writer concerning
the defeft of natural affeCtion in the oftrich, may be well applied
to the bird we are talking o f :
She is hardened againji her young ones, as though thy were not
“ ■ her’s:
“ Beeaitfe God hath deprived her o f wifdom, neither hath he imparted
4‘ to her underftanding
Query,
’ Job x x x ix . 16, 17.
Query, Does each female cuckoo lay but one egg in a feafon,
or does Ihe drop feveral in different nefts according as opportunity
offers ? I am, &c.
L E T T E R V.
TO THE SAME.
D E A R S I R , Se e bor ke, April n , 1770. I heard many birds of feveral fpecies fing laft year after Mid-
fummer; enough to prove that the fummer folllice is not the period-
that puts a flop to the mufic of the woods. The yellowhammer
no doubt perfifts with more fteadinefs than any other; but the
woodlark, the wren, the redbreaft, the fwallow, the white-throat,
the goldfinch, the common linnet, are all undoubted inftances of
the truth of what I advanced.
If this fevere feafon does not interrupt the regularity of the fummer
migrations, the blackcap will be here in two or three days,
I with it was in my power to procure you one of thofe fongfters;
but I am no birdcatcher : and ,fo, finl ittle uf. ed to birds in a caee>,
that I fear if I had one it would foon.die for want of fkill in
feeding.
Waa