SCREAMING COW-BIRD 103 
the nest, to my great disappointment they did not 
lay in it. 
April 12.—To-day I have made a discovery, and 
am as pleased as if I had found a new planet in the 
sky. The mystery of the Bay-wings’ nest twice 
found containing over the usual complement of eggs 
is cleared up, and I have now suddenly become 
acquainted with the procreant instinct of the Scream- 
ing Cow-bird. I look on this as a great piece of good 
fortune; for I had thought that the season for 
making any such discovery was already over, as we 
are so near to winter. 
The Bay-wings are so social in their habits that 
they always appear reluctant to break up their com- 
panies in the breeding-season; no sooner is this 
over, and while the young birds are still fed by the 
parents, all the families about a plantation unite into 
one flock. About a month ago all the birds about 
my home had associated in this way together, and 
went in a scattered flock, frequenting one favourite 
feeding-spot very much, a meadow about fifteen 
minutes’ walk from the house. The flock was com- 
posed, I believe, of three families, sixteen or eighteen 
birds in all: the young birds are indistinguishable 
from the adults ; but I knew that most of these birds 
were young, hatched late in the season, from their 
incessant strident hunger notes. I first observed 
them about the middle of March. A week ago, while 
riding past the meadow where they were feeding, I 
noticed among them three individuals with purple 
spots on their plumage. They were at a distance 
