96 IN BIRD LAND. 



accounts of political caucuses. However, it would 

 be too much to assume that the birds had read 

 them, as many of us " humans " find such hterature 

 too deep for our comprehension. I shall neither 

 eulogize nor stigmatize this favorite minstrel by 

 calling him a politician, although if one were to 

 regard his nesting-habits alone, he deserves that 

 sobriquet quite as well as the white-eyed vireo. 



That parasite among American birds, the female 

 cow-bunting, audaciously spirits her eggs into the 

 wood-thrush's nest, to be hatched with those that 

 properly belong there, while she and her mate sit in 

 the trees near by and whistle their taunting airs, and 

 watch to see whether their dupe attends faithfully to 

 the additional household cares imposed upon her. 

 When the birds are hatched, the victim of this piece 

 of imposture innocently feeds her foster children 

 with the best tidbits she can find, spite of the fact 

 that they may soon crowd her own offspring out of 

 the nest-home. The wonder is that she does not 

 discover the trick at once ; for her eggs are deep 

 blue, while the cow-bird's are white, speckled with 

 ashy brown. Can the wood-thrush be color-blind ? 



About two miles from town, along the banks of a 

 small creek, was the nest of that interesting little 

 bird, the summer warbler, — a dainty structure, com- 

 posed of downy material, and deftly lodged among 

 the twigs of a sapling at the foot of a cliff. A cold 

 spring gurgled from the rocks near by ; the willows 

 and buttonwood trees bent to the balmy breezes, 

 and the tinkling of the brook mingled with the sonrrs 



