the Caw Black-Bird. 429 



when an addle egg is removed, It is not by the owner of 

 the nest, but by some vagrant bird in search of food.'' A 

 few pages after, we find the following sentence, which in 

 a manner involves a contradiction to the above : " It is 

 admitted that the cow-bnnting never drops her egg into 

 the nest of a bird that has commenced incubation." Now 

 if Audubon is wrong, as Mr. Ord says he is, in the first 

 position, may not Mr. Ord's latter position be unfounded ? 

 If Mr. Ord is not incorrect in the latter, why is Audubon 

 necessarily in error ? For we see not on what grounds 

 we cannot allow to birds the power of distinguishing 

 addled eggs, and yet allow the cow-troopial the power of 

 ascertaining whether the eggs in the nest in which it pro- 

 poses to deposit its own, have been set upon or not. 



Mr. Ord concludes his article by several positions 

 which he assumes. As the first four are but the reverse 

 of assumptions which he pronounced untenable and which 

 have been already considered, I will not detain you by a 

 repetition of them. The remainder are, 



1st. « When two eggs of the cow-bunting are hatched 

 in the nest of a bird smaller than herself, the young of 

 the foster-bird, for the want of room, are either smothered 

 in the nest, or jostled out of it.'' 



2nd. "When only one egg of the cow-bunting is 

 hatched in the nest of a bird smaller than herself, the 

 young cow-bird, and the young of the owner of the nest, 

 are nourished and reared with equal afiection, and dwell 

 in harmony together." 



3rd. " When the cow-bunting drops her egg in the 

 nest of a bird larger than herself, the selected nurse does 

 not eject the egg, but hatches the stranger, and nourishes 

 it as her own." 



4th. " The cow-bunting will drop her egg into a nest 

 which contains more than one egg.^^ 



