Sure I am that it
is far otherwise with respect to the swallow tribe, which increases
prodigiously as the summer advances: and I saw, at the time
mentioned, many hundreds of young wagtails on the banks of the
Cherwell, which almost covered the meadows. If the matter
appears as you say in the other species, may it not be owing to the
dams being engaged in incubation, while the young are concealed
by the leaves ?
Many times have I had the curiosity to open the stomachs of
woodcocks and snipes; but nothing ever occurred that helped to
explain to me what their subsistence might be: all that I could ever
find was a soft mucus, among which lay many pellucid small
gravels.
I am, etc.
Letter IV
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, Feb. 19, 1770.
Dear Sir,
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 congenerous, with
whom to intrust its young,' is perfectly 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.
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