528 AVES— COW-BUNTING. 



The migrations of these birds extend very far north. On their way 

 they frequently stop in June, and are observed loitering singly, among 

 thickets, reconnoitering no doubt for proper nurses, to whose care they may 

 commit the hatching of their eggs, and the rearing of their helpless orphans. 

 Among the birds selected for this duty are the red-eyed and white-eyed fly- 

 catchers, the chipping sparrow, the golden-crowned thrush, the blue-bird, 

 the small blue gray flycatcher and and the yellow throat. The yellow 

 throat and the red-eyed flycatcher, appear to be particular favorites; and 

 the kindness and affectionate attention which those two little birds pay to 

 their nurslings, fully justifies the partiality of the parents. What reason 

 nature may have for this extraordinary deviation from her general practice, 

 is beyond my comprehension. 



These birds often frequent corn and rice-fields ; but are more commonly 

 found accompanying the cattle, feeding on the seeds and worms, &c., which 

 they pick up amongst the fodder, &c. Hence they are called cow-birds, 

 cowpen birds, and crow black-birds. They are generally found associated 

 with the red-winged black-birds, which they in many respects resemble. 



In the month of July, says Wilson, I took from the nest of a Maryland 

 yellow throat, a young male cow-bunting, which filled and occupied the 

 whole nest. I took the bird home with me, and placed it in the same cage 

 with a red-bird, who at first and for several minutes after examined it closely 

 and seemingly with great curiosity. It soon became clamorous for food, and 

 from that moment the red-bird seemed to adopt it as his own, feeding it with 

 all the assiduity and tenderness of the most affectionate nurse. When he 

 found that the grasshopper he had brought it, was too large for it to swal- 

 low, he took the insect, broke it into small pieces, chewed them a little to 

 soften them, and then with all the delicacy and gentleness imaginable, put 

 them separately in his mouth. He often spent several minutes looking at 

 and examining it all over, and in picking off" any particles of dirt that he 

 found on its plumage. In six months the cow-bird was in complete plu- 

 mage, and repaid the affectionate services of his foster-parent, with a frequent 

 display of his musical talents ; these it must be confessed are far from ravishing, 

 yet for their singularity are worthy of notice. He spreads his wings, swells 

 his body into a globular form, bristling every feather in the manner of a 

 turkey-cock, and with great seeming difficulty utters a few low sputtering 

 notes; always on these occasions strutting in front of the spectator with 

 great consequential affectation. To see the red-bird, who is himself so ex- 

 cellent a performer, silently listening to all this guttural sputter, reminds 

 one of the great Handel, contemplating a wretched violin scraper! 



The cow-bunting is seven inches long ; the head and neck is a silky drab ; 

 the upper part of the breast a deep changeable violet ; the rest of the bird is 

 black, glossed with green. 



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