COW BUNTING. 181 



terials and allow them time to dry* In this state it is sometimes 

 met with, and laid in by the Cow Bunting; the result of which 

 I have invariably found to be the desertion of the nest by its 

 rightful owner, and the consequent loss of the egg thus dropped 

 in it by the intruder. But when the owner herself has begun to 

 lay, and there are one or more eggs in the nest before the Cow 

 Bunting deposits hers, the attachment of the proprietor is se- 

 cured, and remains unshaken until incubation is fully perform- 

 ed, and the little stranger is able to provide for itself. 



The well known practice of the young Cuckoo of Europe in 

 turning out all the eggs and young which it feels around it, al- 

 most as soon as it is hatched, has been detailed in a very sa- 

 tisfactory and amusing manner, by the amiable Dr. Jenner,* 

 who has since risen to immortal celebrity, in a much nobler 

 pursuit; and to whose genius and humanity the whole human 

 race are under everlasting obligations. In our Cow Bunting, 

 though no such habit has been observed, yet still there is some- 

 thing mysterious in the disappearance of the nurse's own eggs 

 soon after the foundling is hatched, which happens regularly 

 before all the rest. From twelve to fourteen days is the usual 

 time of incubation with our small birds; but although I cannot 

 exactly fix the precise period requisite for the egg of the Cow 

 Bunting, I think I can say almost positively, that it is a day or 

 two less than the shortest of the above mentioned spaces! In 

 this singular circumstance we see a striking provision of the 

 Deity; for did this egg require a day or two more instead of so 

 much less than those among which it has been dropped, the 

 young it contained would in every instance most inevitably 

 perish; and thus in a few years the whole species must become 

 extinct. On the first appearance of the young Cow Bunting, the 

 parent being frequently obliged to leave the nest to provide 

 sustenance for the foundling, the business of incubation is thus 

 necessarily interrupted; the disposition to continue it abates; na- 

 ture has now given a new direction to the zeal of the parent, 

 and the remaining eggs, within a day or two at most, generally 

 * Sec PhUosopbical Transactions for 1788, Part II. 



