COW BUNTING. 179 



do, in its size, tint and markings to those formerly taken notice 

 of. Since that time I have found the young Cow Bunting, in 

 many instances, in the nests of one or other of these small birds; 

 I have seen these last followed by the young Cow-bird calling 

 out clamorously for food, and often engaged in feeding it; and 

 I have now, in a cage before me, a very fine one which six 

 months ago I took from the nest of the Maryland Yellow- 

 throat, and from which the figures of the young bird, and 

 male Cow-bird in the plate were taken; the figure in the act of 

 feeding it is the female Maryland Yellow-throat, in whose 

 nest it was found. I claim, however, no merit for a discovery 

 not originally my own, these singular habits having long been 

 known to people of observation resident in the country, whose 

 information, in this case, has preceded that of all our school 

 philosophers and closet naturalists; to whom the matter has till 

 now been totally unknown. 



About the twenty-fifth of March, or early in April, the Cow- 

 pen-bird makes his first appearance in Pennsylvania from the 

 south, sometimes in company with the Red-winged Blackbird, 

 more frequently in detached parties, resting early in the morn- 

 ing, an hour at a time, on the tops of trees near streams of wa- 

 ter, appearing solitary, silent and fatigued. They continue to 

 be occasionally seen, in small solitary parties, particularly along 

 creeks and banks of rivers, so late as the middle of June; after 

 which we see no more of them until about the beginning or mid- 

 dle of October, when they re-appear in much larger flocks, gene- 

 rally accompanied by numbers of the Red-wings; between whom 

 and the present species there is a considerable similarity of man- 

 ners, dialect, and personal resemblance. In these aerial voyages, 

 like other experienced navigators, they take advantage of the 

 direction of the wind; and always set out with a favourable gale. 

 My venerable and observing friend, Mr. Bartram, writes me 

 on the thirteenth of October, as follows. " The day before 

 "yesterday, at the height of the north-east storm, prodigious 

 " numbers of the Cow-pen birds came by us, in several flights 

 " of some thousands in a flock; many of them settled on trees in 



