356 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



the immense plates in Audubon's work represents 

 such an occurrence, and has been selected as 

 forming an appropriate frontispiece to this Part 

 of the Life of a Bird. 



The fact, that occasionally birds become the 

 foster-parents of others, has been already more 

 than once alluded to in the past pages. The 

 parent's attention to its charge in providing them 

 with food is frequently most severely tested when 

 she has thus to rear the young of a species 

 different from her own. Wilson has given a lively 

 account of the behaviour of a foster-parent and 

 her self-adopted charge, in the persons respectively 

 of a red-bird and a young cow-bunting. The 

 young cow-bunting had been put by Wilson into 

 the same cage with a red-bird, who at first exa- 

 mined it closely, and seemingly with great curiosity. 

 The cow-bunting soon became clamorous for food, 

 and from that moment the red-bird seemed to 

 adopt it as its own, feeding it with all the assi- 

 duity and tenderness of the most affectionate 

 nurse. When the red-bird found that a grass- 

 hopper which he had brought for the cow-bunting 

 was too large for it to swallow, it took away the 

 insect, broke it in small portions, chewed them 



