f' 



420 



Brewer^s Remarks on 



1st. "There is never more than one egg of the cow- 

 bunting deposited in the same nest/' 



2nd. " The egg invariably hatches before those of the 

 foster bird." 



3rd, " The foster mother, in seeking food for her first- 

 born, neglects her own eggs, and their embryos conse- 

 quently perish." 



4th. 



"The birds selected by the cow-bunting as 

 nurses of her progeny are always smaller than herself." 



He is undoubtedly correct as to the first position. His 

 views on this point he makes good, by a number of in- 

 stances which he adduces. But it has not, as he would 

 lead us to infer, been assumed, by either Wilson or Nut- 

 tall, nor yet; in all probability, did Audubon so Intend. 

 Wilson merely says, " I have never known more than 

 one egg of the cow-bunting dropped in the same nest 





Mr 



sometimes found, became known to Wilson before his 

 death. And even the position of Mr. Audubon, un- 

 founded as it may seem at a hasty glance, and wholly at 

 variance with established facts, which was evidently the 



Mr 



above 



admit of a construction, not only not untenable, but one 



Mr 



His words are ; " The cow-bird never deposits more than 

 one egg in a nesl, altbough it is probable it thus leaves 

 several in different nests, especially when we consider the 

 vast number of the species that are to be seen on their 



return 



that the same cow-bunting never lays more than one egg 

 in the same nest, and not that there is never more than 

 one cow^bunting's egg in the same nest, (which last 



J 





