96 IN GIRDZLAND. 
accounts of political caucuses. However, it would 
be too much to assume that the birds had read 
them, as many of us “humans” find such literature 
too deep for our comprehension. I shall neither 
eulogize nor stigmatize this favorite minstrel by 
calling him a politician, although if one were to 
regard his nesting-habits alone, he deserves that 
sobriquet quite as well as the white-eyed vireo. 
That parasite among American birds, the female 
cow-bunting, audaciously spirits her eggs into the 
wood-thrush’s nest, to be hatched with those that 
properly belong there, while she and her mate sit in 
the trees near by and whistle their taunting airs, and 
watch to see whether their dupe attends faithfully to 
the additional household cares imposed upon her. 
When the birds are hatched, the victim of this piece 
of imposture innocently feeds her foster children 
with the best tidbits she can find, spite of the fact 
that they may soon crowd her own offspring out of 
the nest-home. The wonder is that she does not 
discover the trick at once; for her eggs are deep 
blue, while the cow-bird’s are white, speckled with 
ashy brown. Can the wood-thrush be color-blind ? 
About two miles from town, along the banks of a 
small creek, was the nest of that interesting little 
bird, the summer warbler, —a dainty structure, com- 
posed of downy material, and deftly lodged among 
the twigs of a sapling at the foot of a cliff. A cold 
spring gurgled from the rocks near by; the willows 
and buttonwood trees bent to the balmy breezes, 
and the tinkling of the brook mingled with the songs 
