72 COW BUNTING. 



herself a nest, but dropped her eggs in the nests of other birds ; but 

 among the thousands of different species that spread over that and other 

 parts of the globe, no other instance of the same uniform habit has 

 been found to exist, until discovered in the bird now before us. Of the 

 reality of the former there is no doubt ; it is known to every schoolboy 

 in Britain ; of the truth of the latter I can myself speak with confi- 

 dence, from personal observation, and from the testimony of gentlemen, 

 unknown to each other, residing in different and distant parts of the 

 United States. The circumstances by which I became first acquainted 

 with this peculiar habit of the bird are as follows. 



I had, in numerous instances, found in the nests of three or four par- 

 ticular species of birds, one egg, much larger and differently marked 

 from those beside it ; I had remarked that these odd-looking eggs were 

 all of the same color, and marked nearly in the same manner, in what- 

 ever nest they lay ; though frequently the eggs beside them were of a 

 quite different tint ; and I had also been told, in a vague way, that the 

 Cow-bird laid in other birds' nests. At length I detected the female of 

 this very bird in the nest of the Red-eyed Flycatcher, which nest is very 

 small, and very singularly constructed ; suspecting her purpose, I cau- 

 tiously withdrew without distui'bing her ; and had the satisfaction to find, 

 on my return, that the egg which she had just dropped corresponded as 

 nearly as eggs of the same species usually do, in its size, tint and mark- 

 ings to those formerly taken notice of. Since that time I have found 

 the young Cow Bunting, in many instances, in the nests of one or other 

 of these small birds ; I have seen these last followed by the young Cow- 

 bird calling out clamorously for food, and often engaged in feeding it ; 

 and I have now, in a cage before me, a very fine one which six months 

 ago I took from the nest of the Maryland Yellow-throat, and from which 

 the figures of the young bird, and male Cow-bird in the plate were 

 taken ; the figure in the act of feeding it is the female Maryland 

 Yellow-throat, in whose nest it was found. I claim, however, no merit 

 for a discovery not originally my own, these singular habits having long 

 been known to people of observation resident in the country, whose 

 information, in this case, has preceded that of all our school philosophers 

 and closet naturalists ; to whom the matter has till now been totally 

 unknown. 



About the twenty-fifth of March, or early in April, the Cowpen-bird 

 makes his first appearance in Pennsylvania from the south, sometimes 

 in company with the Red-winged Blackbird, more frequently in de- 

 tached parties, resting early in the morning, an hour at a time, on the 

 tops of trees near streams of water, appearing solitary, silent and fa- 

 tigued. They continue to be occasionally seen, in small solitary par- 

 ties, particularly along creeks and banks of rivers, so late as the middle 

 of June ; after which we see no more of them until about the beginning 



