THE CITY OF THE BIRDS. 6"} 



new nest is built. The female golden-winged 

 woodpecker offers a remarkable example of evolv- 

 ing immature ova at pleasure, and if robbed of her 

 treasures will continue to produce several success- 

 ive litters, appearing as inexhaustible as the con- 

 jurer's hat. Nature has made this special provi- 

 sion with the birds generally, knowing full well 

 how many of the children, in their greediness, 

 are disinclined to remember the sixth and eighth 

 commandments. 



A few days after this tragedy I chanced to find 

 another creeper's nest, but it told the same old 

 story; a fraudulent cow-bird had been playing 

 her tricks again. There within the exquisitely- 

 moulded cavity, lay the young tramp in creeper's 

 skin, nearly fledged, and four reddish, blotched, 

 cream-tinted eggs, still unhatched. Evidently 

 the credulous mother is tired of sitting, and 

 devotes her time in feeding the roguish little glut- 

 ton, who, with eyes wide open, looks up, I fancy, 

 in a kind of cow-birdish way, as if half ashamed to 

 be seen in such a place. The deluded creeper's 

 acting is a phenomenon of great interest, and 

 under the circumstances has in it a kind of 

 pathetic humor. How hard she tries to entice 

 me from the nest that is profaned ! How well 

 she assumes the character of a wounded bird — 

 the creeping, limping step and the trailing wing 

 are almost perfect. It is curious, after she has 



