382 RevieiD of the Boston Journal of J^atural History. 



when the mind and physical structure are rendered inapt for the 

 more engrossing business of the world. We have marked with 

 pleasure the enthusiasm enkindled in the retired man of business, 

 and observed the energy imparted to the careless, inattentive 

 youth. A simple flower may impart volumes from which to 

 learn, and the meanest insect a code of moral duty. 



A considerable portion of the present number is occupied 

 with the valuable researches of the late and lamented Say on 

 the Hymenoptera of JNorth America, including observations on 

 some species already described, and the discovery of several 

 new species; being a continuation of a former paper. 



The Icthyology of the State (Massachusetts,) seems to be in 

 a fair way towards a more perfect elucidation, from the judicious 

 studies of Dr. Storer. We are introduced to a new and pretty 

 species of those little and lively fishes so well known to every 

 school-boy, in the pools and ditches of our salt marshes. Four 

 species of Hydrargyra have been already.described by Le Sueur; 

 to these is added the present. Besides this, four other genera 

 have been ascertained as belonging to Massachusetts, which are 

 not mentioned in Professor Hitchcock's catalogue appended to 

 his report on geology. 



Next, a long and minute paper on some peculiarities in the 

 economy of the cov/ black-bird, which, like the cuckoo of Eu- 

 rope, deposits its egg in the nests of other birds, pointing out with 

 great freedom certain errors and hasty conclusions of Mr. Ord, 

 in a late paper in Loudon's Magazine, on the same subject. 



" ' Of all the known birds that are indigenous to North America,' 

 says Mr. Ord, in a communication to Loudon's Magazine for February, 

 1836, 'perhaps there is not one whose habits are so interesting as those 

 of the cow-bunting, cow-bird, cow -pen biid or cow black-bird, (the 

 Fringilla pecoris of Latham;) and yet there is hardly one whose histo- 

 ry has been involved in greater obscurity.' These observations are 

 just; and to the latter clause he might have added, that among Ameri- 

 can birds, there is hardly a single species whose habits are less gene- 

 rally known, except indeed by professed ornithologists, than those of 

 this interesting bird. Its very existence among us is unknown to most; 

 or if any are aware that we have a bird that iniposes upon its neigh- 

 bors the task of rearing its young, it is but too often confounded with the 

 European cuckoo. But the fact is, our cuckoos, thus unjustly involved 

 in the obloqu}^ attached to the conduct of the European species, in the 

 beautiful language of Wilson, 'build their own nest, hatch their own 

 eggs, and rear their ow'n young; and in conjugal and parental affection 

 are nowise behind any of their neighbors of the grove.' " 



This subject is so well known to our field naturalists as to 

 render it improper to enter into a minute examination in this 

 place. One peculiarity, ho^vever, we cannot omit, having our- 

 selves observed a nearly parallel case. 



" There is one circumstance, connected with the history of this bird, 

 which does not appear to be generally known. It has been mentioned, 

 that when a cow black-bird's egg is deposited in a nest newly finished, 

 and before the owner has begun to lay, the bird will frequently enclose 



