144 THE INDUSTRIES OF ANIMALS. 



this interesting parasitical bird, which now is con- 

 stantly dropping eggs in all sorts of places, even 

 on the ground, most of them being lost. " Before and 

 during the breeding-season the females, sometimes 

 accompanied by the males, are seen continually 

 haunting and examining the domed nests of the 

 DendrocolaptidcB. This does not seem like a mere 

 freak of curiosity, but their persistence in their 

 investigations is precisely like that of birds that 

 habitually make choice of such breeding-places. It 

 is surprising that they never do actually lay in such 

 nests, except when the side or dome has been acci- 

 dentally broken enough to admit the light into the 

 interior. Whenever I set boxes up in my trees, the 

 female Cow-birds were the first to visit them. Some- 

 times one will spend half a day loitering about and 

 inspecting a box, repeatedly climbing round and over 

 it, and always ending at the entrance, into which she 

 peers curiously, and when about to enter starting 

 back, as if scared at the obscurity within. But after 

 retiring a little space she will return again and again, 

 as if fascinated by the comfort and security of such 

 an abode. It is amusing to see how pertinaciously 

 they hang about the ovens of the Oven-birds, ap- 

 parently determined to take possession of them, 

 flying back after a hundred repulses, and yet not 

 entering them even when they have' the opportunity. 

 Sometimes one is seen following a Wren or a Swallow 

 to its nest beneath the eaves, and then clinging to 

 the wall beneath the hole into which it disappeared. 

 That it is a recurrence to a long-disused habit I can 

 scarcely doubt. I may mention that twice I have 

 seen birds of this species attempting to build nests, 

 and that on both occasions they failed to complete 



