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 atiention 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 frem 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 wita 
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. 
