THE COW-BIRD 



herself and laid the first egg in the newly completed nest of a 

 Song Sparrow in a wild crab. While he awaited my arrival he no- 

 ticed that the little father and mother Sparrow were working fe- 

 verishly, and when we reached the nest a new floor was laid over 

 the Cow-bird's egg, a Sparrow egg was deposited and the mother 

 was brooding. That made four eggs for the Cow-bird, and we 

 figured that it would be the last, but the next morning Bob saw 

 her sneaking up the opposite river-bank with such elaborate cau- 

 tion it made her conspicuous. v - 



She entered a thicket of wild rose and blackberry that con- 

 tained no nest of which we knew, so he did not follow her. But 

 wonder as to what she could have been doing there kept filling his 

 mind, so he stepped into his boat and started across the river, just 

 in time to see her leaving the thicket in what appeared to be a 

 frenzy of excitement, and Bob decided that she had found a place 

 to deposit her last egg and was rejoicing over the successful plac- 

 ing of her family. 



He entered the bushes and located the nest of an Indigo Finch 

 that he had not suspected was there. There were two of the deli- 

 cate opalescent eggs of the Finch and the last egg of the Cow- 

 bird, still warm to the touch. Again there was a hurry call and the 

 study was a beauty. Bob unceremoniously dumped that egg also. 



He heroically stood guard at the Warbler's nest and every 

 few days we speculated as to what would happen there. Suppose 

 all four of the eggs hatched. Would those dainty little Warblers 

 be able to supply food for the Cow-birds and their own babies 

 also? Would they feed their own and starve the strangers? Or 

 would the beaks that could open widest and lift highest get all the 

 food and the Warbler babies be trampled under foot and die of 

 hunger? 



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