338 FOREIGN BIRDS. 



Wild wonder may gaze while proud science, in vain, 

 Attempts the anomaly strange to explain. 



Of the Tikamou-Tribe* many visitors came ; — 

 One of robes citrine hue and distinguished by fame ; 

 The ViRGiNiATJ-QuAiL, and the Heath-hen were 



there, 

 To whose singular figure what bird may compare ? 



gloss of green when exposed to a good light. The most remarka- 

 ble trait in the character of this bird is that, like the Cuckoo, 

 it lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, instead of building a 

 nest and hatching for itself; and thns leaving its progeny to 

 the care of strangers. It only lays one egg in any one nest ; 

 it is rather larger than those of a blue-bird, thickly sprinkled 

 with grains of pale-brown on a dirty-white ground. It seems 

 to be less nice than the cuckoo in the choice of its nest; among 

 others, it lays in that of the Blue-Bird, tiie Chipping- Sparrow, the 

 Golden-Crowned-Thrush, the Red-Eyed-Fly-Catcher, and the 

 Maryland- Yellow-Throat, birds all well known in America, but 

 which are quite foreign to this country. It is said, too, that 

 the eggs or young of the fostering birds, in whose nest the cow- 

 bunting lays its egg, are ejected from the nest, and, of course, 

 destroyed ; but, whether by the hatched stranger, or by the 

 foster parents, has not been yet ascertained. This bird is mi- 

 gratory in the northern States of America: it appears in 

 Pennsylvania from the south at the end of March or eaily in 

 April; it winters in the Carolinas and Georgia. As it 

 does not appear in size and shape by any means so formida- 

 ble as the cuckoo, this extraordinary habit of laying its 

 egg in the nest of some birds equal, if not superior, to it in size, 

 is more singular than even that of the cuckoo, singular as both 

 of them undoubtedly are. See note (6,) p. 137, 138. 



* For a description of the Great-Tinamou and the Pin- 

 nated-Grouse, or Heath-Hen, see note (36,) part I. 



