cow BUNTING. 83 



This Cow-bird is now six months old, is in complete plumage ; and re- 

 pays the affectionate services of his foster parent with a frequent display 

 of all the musical talents with which nature has gifted him. These, it 

 must be confessed, are far from being ravishing ; yet for their singularity 

 are worthy of notice. He spreads his wings, swells his body into a 

 globular form, bristling every feather in the manner of a turkey cock, 

 and with great seeming difficulty utters a few low, spluttering notes, 

 as if proceeding from his belly ; always, on these occasions, strutting in 

 front of the spectator with great consequential affectation. 



To see the Red-bird, who is himself so excellent a performer, silently 

 listening to all this guttural splutter, reminds me of the great Handel 

 contemplating a wretched cat-gut scraper. Perhaps, however, these 

 may be meant for the notes of love and gratitude, which are sweeter to 

 the ear, and dearer to the heart, than all the artificial solos or concertos 

 on this side heaven. 



The length of this species is seven inches, breadth eleven inches ; the 

 head and neck is of a very deep silky drab ; the upper part of the 

 breast a dark changeable violet ; the rest of the bird is black, with a 

 considerable gloss of green when exposed to a good light ; the form of 

 the bill is faithfully represented in the plate ; it is evidently that of an 

 Emberiza ; the tail is slightly forked ; legs and claws glossy black, 

 strong and muscular ; iris of the eye dark hazel. Catesby says of this 

 bird, "it is all over of a brown color, and something lighter below; " 

 a description that applies only to the female, and has been repeated in 

 nearly the same words, by almost all succeeding ornithologists. The 

 young male birds are at first altogether brown, and for a month, or more, 

 are naked of feathers round the eye and mouth ; the breast is also 

 spotted like that of a Thrush, with light drab and darker streaks. In 

 about two months after they leave the nest, the black commences at the 

 shoulders of the wings, and gradually increases along each side, as the 

 young feathers come out, until the bird appears mottled on the back 

 and breast with deep black and light drab. At three months the colors 

 of the plumage are complete, and, except in moulting, are subject to no 

 periodical change. 



