A HERMIT'S WILD FRIENDS 



instead, keeps an eye to its welfare, and ends 

 by assuming the whole care of its food, and 

 leads it to associate with its kind after it is 

 large, or old enough to fly. 



I have a little bird friend, a chestnut-sided 

 warbler, that nests near my cabin. Three 

 springs running I found a cowbird's egg in 

 my little friend's nest. The first two eggs 

 I threw out, but the third year I thought to 

 try an experiment, the same that was after- 

 ward tried on the che winks, and shot the 

 mother cowbird. The cowbird was out of the 

 shell before the other eggs had hatched. 

 There were three eggs in the nest, and the 

 young cowbird managed to break them. The 

 chestnut-sided warblers had begun to feed the 

 alien, but when they found the broken eggs, 

 they deserted the nest and left the young 

 cowbird to starve. They made a new nest 

 not over three rods from the old one. I was 

 sorry that I had shot the mother cowbird. 

 It would have proved whether a cowbird would 

 leave her offspring to starve, if deserted by 

 the foster-parents. 



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