176 



Bird Lore 



would have Ijcen learned. Besides, the friends of the small birds have never 

 made the Cowbird ihc outlaw he deser\es to be by removing him from the pro- 

 tection of the Connecticut law, and I could sal\e my conscience with the thought 

 that I was strictly obeying the law in leaving the egg in the nest. 



The ne.xt morning there was a Cowbird's egg in a Chipping Sparrow's nest, 

 about fifty feet from the Chat's nest, and a second Cowbird's egg in the Chat's 



IWO VOUN"(; COWHIRDS l\ (HATS NEST. A \()L\(, (TIAr 1^ ( ROW DKH 

 OUT or SIGHT BV THE COWBIRDS 

 I'hdtofcraphed, just before leaving the nest, by Wilbur F. Smith 



nest, from which the female Chat flushed at my approach. I visited this nest 

 every morning. No more eggs were laid, and the Chat began incubation the 

 same day the second Cowbird's egg appeared in the nest. At my approach she 

 would slip ofi the nest and glide through the tangle like a shadow, but I always 

 could feel that she was watching me, while she herself remained unseen. 



After several days' incubation I photographed the nest and eggs, and though 

 1 had to disturb the surroundings somewhat, she was on her nest as usual the 

 next morning. All three eggs hatched, and it was the old story of crowding and 

 clamor, greed and starving, and though the young Chat managed to exist and 

 leave the nest, it was 'out of sight' beneath the larger and stronger Cowbirds 

 when I photographed the nest just before they left it. 



These Chats were c()mi)letely deceived by the Cowbird and were as devoted 

 to the alien interlopers as any other Warbler or Sparrow or Vireo would have been. 



While it may be argued that this nest was an exception that proves the 

 rule, it can just as well be claimed that far from all the Chat's nests are discov- 



