292 TALKS WITH YOUNG OBSERVERS 



Of the smaller birds, like the vireos and 

 warblers, the jay will devour the young. 



My little boy one day saw a jay sitting be- 

 side a nest in a tree, probably that of the red- 

 eyed vireo, and coolly swallowing the just- 

 hatched young, while the parent birds were 

 powerless to prevent him. They flew at him 

 and snapped their beaks in his face, but he 

 heeded them not. A robin would have knocked 

 him off his feet at her first dive. 



One is sometimes puzzled by seeing a punc- 

 tured egg lying upon the ground. One day I 

 came near stepping upon one that was lying in 

 the path that leads to the spring — a fresh egg 

 with a little hole in it carefully placed upon 

 the gravel. I suspected it to be the work of 

 the cowbird, and a few days later I had con- 

 vincing proof that the cowbird is up to this 

 sort of thing. I was sitting in my summer 

 house with a book, when I had a glimpse of a 

 bird darting quickly down from the branches of 

 the maple just above me toward the vineyard, 

 with something in its beak. Following up my 

 first glance with more deliberate scrutiny, I 

 saw a female cowbird alight upon the ground 

 and carefully deposit some small object there, 

 and then, moving a few inches away, remain 

 quite motionless. Without taking my eyes 

 from the spot, I walked straight down there. 

 The bird Hew away, and I found the object she 

 had dropped to be a little speckled bird's egg 

 still warm. I saw that it was the egg of the 

 red-eyed vireo. It was punctured with two 



