434 CUCKOOS. 



to whom the care of rearing the vagrant foundhng is uniformly 

 consigned. 



But we may turn with satisfaction to the conjugal history of 

 our own subject, which, early in May or soon after its arrival, 

 may be at times observed obstinately engaged in the quarrels 

 of selective attachment. The dispute being settled, the nest is 

 commenced, and usually fixed either in the horizontal branches 

 of an apple-tree or in a thicket, a thorn-bush, crab, cedar, or 

 other small tree in some retired part of the woods. The fabric 

 is usually very slovenly and hastily put together, and possesses 

 scarcely any concavity for the reception of the young, who in 

 consequence often fall out of their uncomfortable cradle. The 

 nest is a mere flooring of. twigs put together in a zig-zag form, 

 then blended with green weeds or leaves and withered blos- 

 soms of the maple, apple, or hickory catkins. A nest near the 

 Botanic Garden had, besides twigs, fragments of bass-mat, and 

 was very uncomfortably heated, and damp with the fermenta- 

 tion of the green tops of a species of maple introduced into it, 

 and the whole swarmed with thrush-lice or millipedes. The 

 eggs are of a bluish-green color, often pale, varying in the 

 shade and without spots ; they are somewhat round and rather 

 large. If they are handled before the commencement of incu- 

 bation, the owner generally forsakes the nest, but is very tena- 

 cious and affectionate towards her young, and sits so close as 

 almost to allow of being taken off by the hand. She then 

 frequently precipitates herself to the ground, fluttering, tumb- 

 ling, and feigning lameness, in the manner of many other affec- 

 tionate and artful birds, to draw the intruder away from the 

 premises of her brood. At such times the mother also adds to 

 the contrivance by uttering most uncouth and almost alarming 

 guttural sounds, like qua quah gwaih, as if choking, as she runs 

 along the ground. While the female is thus dutifully engaged 

 in sitting on her charge, the male takes his station at no great 

 distance, and gives alarm by his notes at the approach of any 

 intruder ; and when the young are hatched, both unite in the 

 labor of providing them with food, which, like their own, con- 

 sists chiefly of the hairy caterpillars, rejected by other birds, 



3 



I 



