at 
COW BiNTING. 187 
The Solitary Flycatcher is five inches long, and eight inches in 
breadth; cheeks, and, upper part of the head and neck, a fine bluish 
gray ; breast, pale cineréous; flanks and sides of the breast, yellow ; 
whole back and. tail-coverts, green olive ; wings, nearly black ; the first 
and second row of coverts, tipped with white ; the three secondaries next 
the body, edged with pale yellowish white ; the rest of the quills, bor- 
dered with light green; tail, slightly forked, of the same ‘tint as the 
wings, and. edged with light green ; from the nostrils a line of white 
proceeds to and enciréles the eye; lores, black; belly and vent, white ; 
spper mandible, black ; lower, light blue ; legs and feet, light blue ; 
ayes, hazel.' ‘ 
—_—_——— 
COW BUNTING.* —EMBERIZA PECORIS. — Fres. 83, 84, 85. 
Le Brunet, Buffy iv. 138.—Le Pingon de Virginie, Briss. iii. 165. — Cow-Pen 
Bird, Catesb. i. 34.— Lath. ii. 269. Arct. Zool. p. 371, No. 241, — Sturnus 
stercorarius, Bartram, p. 291. — Peale’s Museum, No. 6378, male; 6379, female. 
MOLOTHRUS PECORIS.— Swainson. 
Fringilla pecoris, Sab. Frank. Journ. p. 676. — Stumus junceti, Lath. Ind. Orn. — 
Emberiza pecoris, Bonap. Nomencl. No. 89.—Icterus pecoris, Bonap. yer 
p. 53. — Aglaius :pecoris, Sw. Synop. Birds of Mex. Phil. Mag. June, 1827, p. 
436.— The Cow-Pen Bird, Aud. pl. 99, Orn. Biog. i. p. 493. — Molothrus 
pecoris, North. Zool. ii. p. 277. * : : 
Turere is one striking peculiarity in the works of the great Creator, 
which becomes:more amazing the more we reflect on it; namely, that 
le has formed no species of animals so minute, or obscure, that are not 
invested with certain powers and peculiarities, both of cutward con- 
formation and internal faculties, exactly suited to their pursuits, suffi- 
cient to distinguish them from. all-others; and forming for them a 
character. solely and exclusively their own. This is particularly so 
among the feathered race. Jf there be any case where these charac- 
teristic features are not evident, it is owing to our want of observation ; 
to our little intercourse with that particular tribe; or to that contempt 
for inferior animals, and all their -habitudes, which is but too general, 
and which bespeaks a morose, unfeelng, and unreflecting mind. 
These peculiarities are often surprising, always instructive where 
understood, and (as in the subject of. our present chapter) at least 
amusing, and worthy of being further investigated.t 
* The American Cuckoo (Cuculus Carolinensis) is by many people called the 
Cow Bird, from the sound of its notes resembling the words Cow, cow. This bird 
builds its own nest very artlessly in a cedar or an apple-tree, and lays four green- 
ish blue-eggs, which it hatches, and rears its young with great tenderness, 
+ In this curious species, we have another instance of those wonderful provisions 
of Nature, which have hitherto baffled the knowledge and perseverance of man to 
discover for what uses they were intended. ‘The only authenticated instance of.a 
like circumstance that we are aware of, is in the economy of the Common Cuckoo 
of Europe. Some foreign species, which rank as true Cuculi, are said to deposit 
their eggs in the rests of other birds ; but I am not sure that the fact is confirmed. 
With regard to tl e birds in question, there is little common between them, except 
