cow BUNTING. 73^ 



or middle of October, -when they reappear in much larger flocks, gen- 

 erally accompanied by numbers of the Red-wings ; between whom and 

 the present species there is a considerable similarity of manners, dialect, 

 and personal resemblance. In these aerial voyages, like other expe- 

 rienced navigators, they take advantage of the direction of the wind ; 

 and always set out with a favorable gale. My venerable and observing 

 friend, Mr. Bartram, writes me on the 13th of October, as follows : 

 " The day before yesterday, at the height of the north-east storm, pro- 

 digious numbers of the Cowpen-birds came by us, in several flights of 

 some thousands in a flock ; many of them settled on trees in the garden 

 to rest themselves ; and then resumed their voyage southward. There 

 were a few of their cousins, the Red-wings, with them. We shot three, 

 a male and two females." 



From the early period at which these birds pass in the spring, it is 

 highly probable that their migrations extend very far north. Those 

 which pass in the months of March and April can have no opportunity 

 of depositing their eggs here, there being not more than one or two of 

 our small birds which build so early. Those that pass in May and 

 June, are frequently observed loitering singly about solitary thickets, 

 reconnoitering, no doubt, for proper nurses, to whose care they may 

 commit the hatching of their eggs, and the rearing of their helpless 

 orphans. Among the birds selected for this duty are the following, all 

 of which are figured and described in this and the preceding volume : 

 the Blue-bird, which builds in a hollow tree ; the Chipping Sparrow, 

 in a cedar bush ; the Golden-crowned Thrush, on the ground, in the 

 shape of an oven ; the Red-eyed Flycatcher, a neat pensile nest, hung 

 by the two upper edges on a small sapling, or drooping branch ; the 

 Yellow-bird, in the fork of an alder ; the Maryland Yellow-throat, on the 

 ground at the roots of briar bushes ; the White-eyed Flycatcher, a pen- 

 sile nest on the bending of a smilax vine ; and the small Blue Gray 

 Flycatcher, also a pensile nest, fastened to the slender twigs of a tree, 

 sometimes at the height of fifty or sixty feet from the ground. The 

 three last mentioned nurses are represented on the same plate with the 

 bird now under consideration. There are, no doubt, others to whom 

 the same charge is committed ; but all these I have myself met with 

 acting in that capacity. 



Among these the Yellow-throat, and the Red-eyed Flycatcher, ap- 

 pear to be particular favorites ; and the kindness and aff'ectionate atten- 

 tion which these two little birds seem to pay to their nurslings, fully 

 justify the partiality of the parents. 



It is well known to those who have paid attention to the manners of 

 birds, that after their nest is fully finished, a day or two generally 

 elapses before the female begins to lay. This delay is in most cases ne- 

 cessary to give firmness to the yet damp materials and allow them time to 



