186 COW BUNTING, 



" That the Fringilla never builds a nest for itself you may 

 " assert without the hazard of a refutation. I once offered apre- 

 " mium for the nest, and the negroes in the neighbourhood 

 " brought me a variety of nests, but they were always traced 

 " to some other bird. The time of depositing their eggs is from 

 "the middle of April to the last of May, or nearly so; corres- 

 " ponding with the season of laying observed by the small birds, 

 " on whose property it encroaches. It never deposits but one 

 " egg in the same nest, and this is generally after the rightful 

 " tenant begins to deposit hers, but never I believe after she has 

 " commenced the process of incubation. It is impossible to say 

 " how many they lay in a season, unless they could be watched 

 " when confined in an aviary. 



" By a minute attention to a number of these birds when they 

 " feed in a particular field in the laying season, the deportment 

 " of the female, when the time of laying draws near, becomes 

 " particularly interesting. She deserts her associates, assumes 

 " a drooping sickly aspect, and perches upon some eminence 

 66 where she can reconnoitre the operations of other birds in the 

 " process of nidification. If a discovery suitable to her purpose 

 " cannot be made from her stand, she becomes more restless, 

 66 and is seen flitting from tree to tree, till a place of deposit can 

 " be found. I once had an opportunity of witnessing a scene of 

 " this sort which I cannot forbear to relate. Seeing a female 

 " prying into a bunch of bushes in search of a nest, I determined 

 " to see the result, if practicable; and knowing how easily they 

 " are disconcerted by the near approach of man, I mounted my 

 " horse, and proceeded slowly, sometimes seeing and sometimes 

 " losing sight of her, till I had travelled nearly two miles along 

 " the margin of a creek. She entered every thick place, prying 

 " with the strictest scrutiny into places where the small birds 

 "usually build, and at last darted suddenly into a thick copse 

 " of alders and briars, where she remained five or six minutes, 

 " when she returned, soaring above the underwood, andreturn- 

 " ed to the company she had left feeding in the field. Upon en- 

 " tering the covert I found the nest of a Yellow-throat, with an 



