in the
thicket I mention, I never observed any one, that I supposed to be the
cock-bird, paired with this hen."

Nor is this a new observation, though it is entirely overlooked by the
modern naturalists, for Aristotle speaking of the cuckoo, asserts that she
sometimes builds her nest among broken rocks, and on high mountains, (L. 6.
H. c. 1.) but adds in another place that she generally possesses the nest
of another bird, (L. 6. H. c. 7.) And Niphus says that cuckoos rarely build
for themselves, most frequently laying their eggs in the nests of other
birds, (Gesner, L. 3. de Cuculo.)

The Philosopher who is acquainted with these facts concerning the cuckoo,
would seem to have very little _reason_ himself, if he could imagine this
neglect of her young to be a necessary _instinct_!

XIV. The deep recesses of the ocean are inaccessible to mankind, which
prevents us from having much knowledge of the arts and government of its
inhabitants.

1. One of the baits used by the fisherman is an animal called an Old
Soldier, his size and form are somewhat like the craw-fish, with this
difference, that his tail is covered with a tough membrane instead of a
shell; and to obviate this defect, he seeks out the uninhabited shell of
some dead fish, that is large enough to receive his tail, and carries it
about with him as part of his clothing or armour.

2. On the coasts about Scarborough, where the haddocks, cods, and dog-fish,
are in great abundance, the fishermen universally believe that the dog-fish
make a line, or semicircle, to encompass a shoal of haddocks and cod,
confining them within certain limits near the shore, and eating them as
occasion requires. For the haddocks and cod are always found near the shore
without any dog-fish among them, and the dog-fish further off without any
haddocks or cod; and yet the former are known to prey upon the latter, and
in some years devour such immense quantities as to render this fishery more
expensive than profitable.

3. The remora, when he wishes to remove his situation, as he is a very slow
swimmer, is content to take an outside place on whatever conveyance is
going his way; nor can the cunning animal be tempted to quit his hold of a
ship when she is sailing, not even for the lucre of a piece of pork, lest
it should endanger the loss of his passage: at other times he is easily
caught with the hook.

4. The crab-fish, like many other testaceous animals, annually changes its
shell;