854 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



to find a suitable nest ; and sometimes does not wait 

 until the nest is finished. During the past summer, 

 watching a pair of white-eyed greenlets while building, 

 I, one afternoon, saw a cowpen-bird fly to the half-finished 

 nest, and in less than two minutes fly away. In that 

 brief space of time she deposited an egg. Meanwhile, 

 the rightful owners of the nest were much exercised, 

 and held a long discussion over the occurrence. This 

 resulted in a remodelling of the bottom of the structure, 

 the egg being neatly floored over. 



Young cowpen-birds, for a short time after leaving 

 the nest, associate with their foster-parents ; but, as the 

 season wears away, the birds that were hatched in one 

 neighborhood finally meet, and a flock is eventually or- 

 ganized, retaining its numbers until the breaking-up of 

 winter. During the spring and early summer of 1884 

 I found eleven nests containing eggs of the cowpen- 

 bird, the nests being in one limited area of a hundred 

 or more acres. In a very short time after they were 

 able to fly these young cowpen-birds would find the 

 company of their own kind preferable to that of the 

 warblers and fly-catchers that had nursed them. I have 

 never seen them with their foster-parents after the nest- 

 ing season of the latter was practically over. 



Another peculiarity of the bird has been wholly over- 

 looked. During July, August, and even September, 

 the female cowpen-birds continue to drop single eggs 

 at irregular intervals, and, when so doing, they do not 

 look up some deserted nest, but drop the eggs upon the 

 ground, and then descend from their perches to eat 

 them. This I have witnessed on several occasions. 



