MY WOODLAND INTIMATES 



participates in none of the contentions or dis- 

 putes that may be going on around her, and she 

 has the good sense to simply ignore the occasional 

 digs and pecks that fall to her share as a member 

 of an eager, hungry crowd. 



How much the cow-bird gives the wise men 

 to think about, in her habit of stealthily deposit- 

 ing her eggs in the nests of other birds! She 

 usually selects for her purpose the homes of little 

 creatures, such as chippies, song-sparrows, war- 

 blers, and vireos. " But one egg is usually de- 

 posited in a single nest; the presence of two eggs 

 probably indicates . . . the visits of two 

 cow-birds rather than a visit from a single indi- 

 vidual." It may be that in thus distributing her 

 family the cow-bird mother has a thought of se- 

 curing a generous share of food and attention for 

 each foster child. At any rate, because of its 

 bulk and its enormous demands for food, the in- 

 truder is generally the cause of the rightful occu- 

 pants being starved or crowded out of their own 

 homes. 



" To me," says Mr. Bradford Torrey, in " A 

 Rambler's Lease," " I must confess, it is inexpli- 

 cable that any bird should be either so unobserv- 

 ant as not to recognize a foreign egg at sight, 

 [no] 



