"* 



the Cow Black-Bird. 431 



the cat-bird, the robin, the hermit thrush, the ground 

 robin, "the cardinal grosbeak, the cuckoo, the woodpecker, 

 &c., (I ask not all — a few species will suffice), he cannot 

 but be thought to have hastily adopted an unfounded and 

 untenable position. 



His last position, that the cow-bunting will drop her 

 egg in a nest which contains more than one egg, is a fact 

 of too common occurrence to need confirmation. One 

 would think it a fact too well known to the veriest tyro 

 in ornithology to require being mentioned at all ; least of 

 all, of being brought forward as a new discovery. 



There is one circumstance, connected with the history 

 of this bird, which does not appear to be generally known. 

 It has been mentioned that when a cow black-bird's egg 

 is deposited in a nest newly finished, and before the owner 

 has begun to lay, the bird will frequently enclose the egg 

 in fresh materials so as to prevent it from ever hatching. 

 It does not appear to be known that the bird will some- 

 times, in order to get rid of the intruder, bury with the 

 cow-troopial's, her own eggs. That such is sometimes 

 the case, the following will show. In the summer of 

 1835, I found in the botanical garden in Cambridge, a 

 nest of the summer yellow-bird, which a brood had evi- 

 dently but just left. Its peculiarly elongated shape, at- 

 tracted my notice. Upon examining it, I found that the 



h 



bird had apparently first constructed a nest of the usual 

 shape, and had deposited in it three of her own eggs. 

 At this period, a cow black-bird had added another. Not 

 Avishing, as it would seem, to waste her time by rearino- a 

 stranger, to the probable destruction of her own ofFspring, 

 and yet unwilling to be at the trouble of constructing a 

 'pest entirely anew, she merely built an additional story 

 to it : thus effectually destroying the egg of the intruder, 



