THE COW-BIRD. 85 
tough bark, torn into filaments, and are flask-like in shape, 
hung from the branches of trees, and having their entrance 
from below. 
Then there is the well-known Cow-Birp of America, 
which is closely allied to the common cuckoo, and yet 
which builds its own nest, and rears itsown young. “Harly 
in May,” writes Wilson, “they begin to pair, when obstinate 
battles take place among the males. About the tenth of 
that month they commence building. The nest is usually 
fixed among the horizontal branches of an apple-tree; 
sometimes in a solitary thorn, crab, or cedar, in some retired 
part of the woods. It is constructed with little art, and 
scarcely any concavity, of small sticks and twigs, intermixed 
with green weeds and blossoms of the common maple. On 
this almost flat bed the eggs, usually three orfour in number, 
are placed; these are of an uniform greenish blue colour, 
and of a size proportionate to that of the bird. 
“While the female is sitting, the male is generally not 
very far distant, and gives the alarm by his notes when any 
person is approaching. The female sits so close that you 
may almost reach her with your hand, and then precipi- 
tates herself to the ground, feigning lameness, fluttering, 
trailing her wings, and tumbling over, in the manner of 
the partridge, woodcock, and many other species. Both 
parents unite in providing food for the young.” 
In this narrative, two points are especially worthy of 
notice. In the first place, the egg of the Cow-bird is 
proportionate in size to the bird which laid it. Now, one 
of the most) remarkable facts connected with the history 
of the common cuckoo is, that although the bird is as 
large as a small hawk, its egg is scarcely half as large 
as that of a thrush or blackbird, as indeed is needful 
for its admission into the nest of a hedge-sparrow or 
redstart. 
