of the United States of America. 65 



over its body, that the skin is visible ; and, in respect to colour, 

 it cannot be distinguished from the young of either the Mary- 

 land yellow throat, or those of the indigo bird. In one in- 

 stance, indeed, I observed that the down of the cow bunting 

 was a shade lighter than that of two indigo birds, its nest- 

 mates. 



An opinion has lately been broached, that " birds have pro- 

 bably the means of knowing an addle egg, for, when any such 

 remain after the hatching of the others, they always remove 

 them from the nest" (Audubon's Qrn. Biog., i. 497.) I 

 have reason to believe that birds possess no such know- 

 ledge ; and I am confident that, when an addle egg is removed, 

 it is not by the owner of the nest, but by some vagrant bird 

 in search of food : except, indeed, in the case of its being 

 broken, when it is invariably removed by the proprietor. To 

 find an addle egg among nestlings is so common an occur- 

 rence, that instances of the fact, which is known to every ex- 

 perienced naturalist, would be useless. 



I shall now proceed to detail the result of some particular 

 observations on the cow bunting, in the hope that other na- 

 turalists may be induced to pursue a subject which is worthy 

 of investigation. 



My residence is in the county of Bucks, Pennsylvania ; a 

 retirement selected for its amenity and sylvan character, inas- 

 much as an ample forest lies contiguous to my dwelling. In 

 this forest the sound of a gun is seldom heard ; no vagabond 

 bird-collector is allowed to pollute a retreat, which even the 

 volatile schoolboy has been taught to respect, as a sanctuary 

 of the feathered race. Here is the chosen abode of the 

 splendid tanager, the golden oriole, and the tuneful wood 

 thrush ; and here the indigo bird, the song sparrow, and many 

 others, construct their nests and rear their young in safety. 



On the 9th of June, 1834, I discovered a nest of the wood 

 thrush (Turdus melodus Wils.). It was placed on a horizontal 

 branch of a low cedar, four feet from the ground ; and con- 

 tained two eggs belonging to the owner of the nest, and an 

 egg of the cow bunting. The latter was smaller than the 

 others, as the bird which laid it is smaller than the thrush ; 

 the cow bunting, according to Wilson, being 7 in. in length, 

 and the wood thrush 8 in. 



Early in the morning of the 10th of June, I found one of 

 the thrush's eggs hatched, and the cow bunting's. They had 

 both been hatched either the preceding night, or that morn- 

 ing, as I had not perceived any external signs of hatching in 

 the evening of the 9th. In the morning of the 12th of June, 

 the thrush's second egg was hatched. 



