58 Observations on the Cow Bunting 



That all these propositions are untenable, will be evident 

 from the facts related in this paper. I would premise, how- 

 ever, that the circumstance of two eggs of the cow bunting 

 being sometimes dropped in the same nest, became known to 

 Wilson not long before his death ; for, as he and I were 

 pursuing our ornithological researches, near the coast of New 

 Jersey, in the month of May of the year 1813, I found the 

 nest of the Sylvia pinus, which contained three of her own 

 eggs, and two eggs of the cow bunting. Wilson was not a 

 little surprised at this discovery ; and declared it was the first 

 instance, that had ever come to his knowledge, of a deviation 

 from what he had considered an invariable habit of the cow 

 bird. 



In Wilson's history of the cow bunting the following pas- 

 sage occurs : — " The well-known practice of the young cuc- 

 koo of Europe, in turning out all the eggs and young which 

 it feels around it, almost as soon as it is hatched, has been 

 detailed, in a very satisfactory and amusing manner, by the 

 amiable Dr. Jenner; who has since risen to immortal cele- 

 brity in a much nobler pursuit; and to whose genius and 

 humanity the whole human race are under everlasting obli- 

 gations. In our cow bunting, though no such habit has been 

 observed, yet still there is something mysterious in the disap- 

 pearance of the nurse's own eggs soon after the foundling is 

 hatched, which happens regularly before all the rest. From 

 twelve to fourteen days is the usual time of incubation 

 with our small birds ; but, although I cannot exactly fix 

 the precise period requisite for the egg of the cow bunting, I 

 think I can say, almost positively, that it is a day or two 

 less than the shortest of the above-mentioned spaces. In this 

 singular circumstance we see a striking provision of the 

 Deity; for did this egg require a day or two more, instead 

 of so much less, than those among which it had been dropped, 

 the young it contained would, in every instance, most inevitably 

 perish ; and thus, in a few years, the whole species must be- 

 come extinct. On the first appearance of the young cow 

 bunting, the parent being frequently obliged to leave the nest, 

 to provide sustenance for the foundling, the business of incu- 

 bation is thus necessarily interrupted ; the disposition to continue 

 it abates ; nature has now given a new direction to the zeal of 

 the parent ; and the remaining eggs, within a day or two, at 

 most, generally disappear. In some instances, indeed, they 

 have been found on the ground near, or below, the nest ; but 

 this is rarely the case." 



Before commenting upon the singularly erroneous assertions 

 contained in the foregoing paragraph, I would take the liberty 

 of suggesting that there must have been some mistake in the 



