THE COW-BIRD 177 



the cases may be, and probably are, ex- 

 ceptional. 



It is interesting to note that the parasitical 

 methods of the European cuckoo are not 

 unique, but are reproduced in almost every 

 feature in the case of a small American bird, 

 the cow-bunting, cow-bird or cow-pen bird. 

 Wilson, in his American Ornithology, gives a 

 long and interesting account of this bird. Like 

 our cuckoos they do not pair, nor do they build 

 any nest, but deposit their eggs in the nests of 

 other birds, just as does our cuckoo, and never 

 more than one in each nest. If Wilson is 

 correct, the cow-bird's egg hatches in a shorter 

 time than those of the selected foster-parents, 

 and shortly after it is hatched, the eggs of the 

 original owners all disappear. Here the resem- 

 blance to the cuckoo story ceases, for with the 

 removal of the eggs the young cow-bird has 

 nothing to do. Nor is there any evidence 

 that the cow-bird parent ever revisits the nest. 

 Wilson appears to acquiesce in the opinion of 

 Dr. Potter of Baltimore, that the only possible 

 explanation is that the surplus eggs are removed 

 by the foster-parents themselves. 



