188 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



vireo eggs, because the cowbird had broken it, 

 when dropping her own in the nest, while she had 

 eaten one to make room for hers. Two more 

 cowbird eggs were found in the nest of a black 

 masked warbler, about the same distance from 

 the vireo nest that it had been from the sparrow's. 

 This nest we decided to leave untouched so that 

 we might make a record of what would happen 

 there. I had supposed that these four eggs would 

 account for the cowbird's efforts in this direction, 

 but the following morning Mr. Black and I saw 

 her leave a thicket across the river and start down 

 the bank in a perfect frenzy of exultation. No 

 hen of the barnyard ever cackled and fussed over 

 her first egg as this cowbird exulted over the suc- 

 cessful placing of the last. 



A picture which I regard as one of the most 

 beautiful and rarest of my experience afield was 

 made w T hen the cowbirds were old enough to leave 

 the nest of the warbler. The nest was built in a 

 scraggy, little wild plum bush, the structure of 

 dainty architecture as is the custom with warblers. 

 By the time the cowbirds were ready to leave the 

 nest, all of the warblers had been starved and 

 trampled to death save one. This was a hungry 

 little creature that from continuous fasting had 

 put all its strength in feathers. I never have 

 seen a young bird so curiously feathered; its plum- 

 age seemed to curl. I have seen several young 

 chickens that had eaten something that made 



