THE COW-BIRD 



s buried from sight and their feeble cries so drowned in the lusty 

 clamor of the Cow-birds, that their end seemed apparent from 

 the first. The smallest Warbler had no chance at all and in a few 

 days Bob lifted him from the nest with my hat-pin, dead and 

 trampled flat, and I am afraid he "said things" when he did it. 

 The beak of the remaining Warbler did not reach the butts of the 

 Cow -birds' wings when he raised his wobbly little head and joined 

 his voice in the hunger-cry which went on all day, but some way he 

 got just enough to keep him alive. 



INVERTED NEST OF SONG SPARROW, SHOWING 

 WALLED-IN EGG OF COW-BIRD 



The old Warblers seemed to feel that the continual cries from 

 their brood were an imputation on their housekeeping, and they 

 raced about pitifully, taking time neither to bathe nor eat enough 

 themselves. Soon they were mere shadows. But day by day the 

 Cow-birds waxed fatter and fatter and their cries grew more 

 vociferous. Day by day the Warblers grew thinner. The baby's 

 crop hollowed until it was drawn from sight, his eyes sank deeper 

 and he grew more patient. 



Bob's only relief was to watch his Vireos thrive. There being 



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