A HERMIT'S WILD FRIENDS 





cowbird to desert its foster-parents to associate 

 with its kind. I will say now, that long be- 

 fore I had the opportunity to study the bird, 

 I did not believe it possible for a young bird, 

 by its own knowledge, to hunt up and associate 

 with birds of its kind. That would be a 

 miracle, and the days of miracles are passed. 

 In my study of birds I have found that old 

 birds educate the young, and I knew that the 

 young cowbird was piloted by its mother, or 

 the foster-parents turned it over to its kind 

 to be rid of incumbrances. Few writers 

 have studied the cowbird through the nesting 

 season. Mr. John Burroughs writes that he 

 found small eggs in the path that had two 

 pricks in the shell. Afterward he detected 

 the cowbird removing an egg from a bird's 

 nest. Mr. Burroughs intimates that the cow- 

 bird did this to deceive the owners of the nest. 

 They, finding the proper number of eggs, 

 would not detect the fraud. I was sincerely 

 grieved that a delightful writer on natural 

 history should make such a break. His in- 

 terpretation would endow the cowbird with a 

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