34 BIRD STORIES FROM BURROUGHS 



gitimate egg in the nest by removing one of the 

 bird's own. I found a sparrow's nest with two 

 sparrow's eggs and one cowbird's egg, and an- 

 other egg lying a foot or so below it on the 

 ground. I replaced the ejected egg, and the 

 next day found it again removed, and another 

 cowbird's egg in its place. I put it back the sec- 

 ond time, when it was again ejected, or destroyed, 

 for I failed to find it anywhere. Very alert and 

 sensitive birds, like the warblers, often bury the 

 strange egg beneath a second nest built on top 

 of the old. A lady living in the suburbs of an 

 Eastern city heard cries of distress one morning 

 from a pair of house wrens that had a nest in a 

 honeysuckle on her front porch. On looking out 

 of the window, she beheld this little comedy, — 

 comedy from her point of view, but no doubt 

 grim tragedy from the point of view of the 

 wrens : a cowbird with a wren's egg in its beak 

 running rapidly along the walk, with the out- 

 raged wrens forming a procession behind it, 

 screaming, scolding, and gesticulating as only 

 these voluble little birds can. The cowbird had 

 probably been surprised in the act of violating 

 the nest, and the wrens were giving her a piece 

 of their minds. 



Every cowbird is reared at the expense of two 

 or more song-birds. For every one of these du^y 



