JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 



15 



to see any more eggs but to my sur- 

 prise and disgust, one morning, when 

 I went to the nest I found a larger, 

 dark-colored egg which I at once 

 recognized as the parasitic Cow- 

 bird's. 



Perhaps, for the benefit of those who 

 are not acquainted with the Cow bird 

 it would be well for me to say a word 

 in regard to its habits. 



It is a bird more than twice the 

 size of the Yellow Warbler. It builds 

 no nest of its own but drops its eggs 

 into the nests of smaller birds. When 

 the egg hatches, the young bird is, 

 quite naturally, larger than the others 

 and crowds them, getting the larger 

 part of the food which the old birds 

 bring, thus making lots of extra work 

 for its foster parents and stunting for 

 the time, the growth of their own 

 fledgelings. As soon as it can fly, it 

 leaves its foster parents not even 

 thanking them for their trouble. 



At first. I was tempted to destroy 

 the egg but finally decided to let it 

 remain. 



Now that the eggs were all laid the 

 little female began to sit in earnest. 

 How patiently she sat there day after 

 day through sun and rain! The little 

 male bird was very faithful to his 

 charge, bringing her nice fat worms 

 and flies to eat and even water to 

 drink. 



The first time I saw him bring wa- 

 ter I was not quite sure about it but 

 as I was within three feet of the nest 

 and watched very closely, I soon saw 

 him come with more water and was 

 then convinced. 



When she got very tired he would 

 sit on the eggs and let her take need- 

 ed rest and exercise. After a while 

 the eggs began to hatch and a prouder 

 pair of birds were never seen. As 

 soon as the eggs were all hatched the 

 Cow bird's included, the male came 

 with some flies and worms to feed 

 them but the female would take them 



from him and break them in pieces 

 and then feed the young herself. But 

 as the young birds grew older and re- 

 quired more food the mother bird 

 could not be so particular as it kept 

 them both busy to find food enough. 



The nest was situated so that during 

 a part of the day the sun beat squarely 

 down upon it making it very uncom- 

 fortable for the young birds. The 

 mother bird did not wish to sit on 

 the nest, as the young birds needed 

 the air, and she did not wish to have 

 the sun on them. So she would stand 

 on the side of the nest with her wings 

 extended making an awning of herself. 

 And there she would stand until the 

 sun changed its position. 



The birds were very neat about 

 their housekeeping, all the excre- 

 ment of the brood being carried away 

 by the old birds. They did not dro? 

 it near the nest, as that would soon 

 mark the place so their enemies could 

 find them, but it was carried a long 

 distance, often many hundred yards 

 from the nest. Nature has wisely pro- 

 vided a film-like coating over the ex- 

 crement which prevents soiling the 

 nest and makes it convenient for 

 the old birds to carry. 



I tried many times to make a picture 

 of the nest and birds and after many 

 failures succeeded in getting a fair 

 picture, but not as good as I would 

 like to have. 



At last the young birds became 

 crowded and one by one they began 

 to stretch out their wings and preen 

 their stubby feathers. 



One morning when I went to visit 

 the nest, I found it was empty and not 

 a sign of a bird to be seen. I thought 

 at first, that it was the work of some 

 owl, but I soon found that the whole 

 family were in an apple tree quite a 

 distance from their home. They were 

 perched about among the branches 

 and it was some time before I could 

 locate them, but they were all there, 



