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A MERl CA N ORNI THO LOG Y 



We are familar with the plaintive 

 call of the Phoebe, but a few days 

 ago 1 heard an addition to its notes, 

 which 1 had never before observed. 

 I heard a sweet trilling melody, as 

 a bird flew through the air above 

 me, and was surprised, as it alight- 

 ed upon a dead branch beyond, to 

 see it was my old friend Phoebe. 

 1 wonder if others of your readers 

 are familar with her song. 



One of the most ludicrous sights 

 in the bird world is that of a great 

 ungainly cowb ir d 

 domineering over 

 its tiny foster par- 

 ents. The lazy 

 cowbird does not 

 take the trouble to 

 build a cradle of its 

 own, and train up 

 its young in the 

 w a y they should 

 go, but drops its 

 egg in the nest of 

 some small bird, and 

 gives no more 

 thought or care to 

 it. The Summer 

 Yellow-bird often 

 builds a floor over this egg, and 

 then goes on with her own plans re- 

 gardless of the egg in her cellar. 

 Sometimes the cowbird comes a 

 second time, another floor is laid, 

 and occasionally nests are found 

 four stories deep; but usually the 

 stranger's egg is brooded over by 

 the little mother, and in the course 

 of time the rightful occupants of the 

 nest are crowded out by the in- 

 truder. 



One day last summer I heard a 

 great commotion in a woodside 

 thicket, and on quietly parting the 

 branches found a young cowbird, 

 evidently just out of the nest, for it 

 was still unfledged, but its vocal 

 chords were in good condition, as it 

 ordered breakfast, and that quick- 

 ly. A Redstart was in attendance 

 and did its best to satisfy the crav- 

 ings of this tyrannical infant. 



Several weeks later we found a 

 pair of Maryland Yellow-throats 

 busily engaged in 

 collecting food for 

 an older intruder of 

 the same kind, 

 w h i c h was four 

 times as large as 

 his foster parents. 

 The little yellow- 

 throats flew back 

 and forth from the 

 ground to the tele- 

 graph wire where 

 the lazy bird sat, in 

 V a i n attempts to 

 quiet its clamor. 

 The tid-bit brought 

 was speedily su-al- 

 lowed and the awkward gray bird, 

 like Oliver Twist called for "more, 

 more." These tiny yellow birds 

 were a marvel of patience and in- 

 dustry, but alas, 1 fear their young 

 ward proved anything but a com- 

 fort to them when it reached years 

 of discretion. 



Mary Hazen Arnold. 



Connecticut. 



