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 on 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 further appear that this simple bird, when divested of that
natural [Greek text] 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 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 concerning 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?

I am, etc.

LETTER V.

SELBORNE, _April 12th_, 1770.

Dear Sir,--I heard many birds of several species sing last year after
Midsummer, enough to prove that the summer solstice is not the period
that puts a stop to the music of the woods. The yellow-hammer no doubt
persists with more steadiness than any other: but the woodlark, the wren,
the redbreast, the swallow, the whitethroat, the goldfinch, the common
linnet, are all undoubted instances of the truth of what I advanced.

If this severe season does not interrupt the regularity of the summer
migrations, the black-cap will be here in two or three days. I wish it
was in my power to procure you one of those songsters; but I a