COW BUNTING. 193 
of any other species at other seasons, excepting a promiscuous con- 
cubinage, which pervades the whole tribe. When the female separates 
from the company, her departure is not noticed; no gallant partner 
accompanies her, nor manifests any solicitude in her absence; nor is 
her return greeted by that gratulatory tenderness that so eminently 
characterizes the males of other birds. The male proffers the same 
civilities to any female, indiscriminately, and they are reciprocated ac- 
cordingly, without exciting either resentment or jealousy in any of the 
party. This want of sexual attachment is not inconsistent with the 
general economy of this singular bird; for, as they are neither their 
own architect, nor nurse of their own young, the degree of attachment 
that governs others would be superfluous. 
_“ That the Fringilla never builds a nest for itself, you may assert 
without the hazard of a refutation. I once offered a premium for the 
nest, and the negroes in the neighborhood brought me a variety of 
nests ; but they were always traced to some other bird. The time of 
depositing their eggs is from the middle of April to the last of May, or 
nearly so; corresponding with the season of laying observed by the 
small birds on whose property it encroaches. It never deposits but 
one. egg in the same nest, and this is generally after the rightful ten- 
ant begins to deposit hers, but never, I believe, after she has com- 
menced the process of incubation. It is impossible to say how many 
they lay in a season, unless they could be watched when confined in 
an aviary. 
“ By a minute attention to a number of these birds when they feed 
in a particular field, in the laying season, the deportment of the 
female, when the time of laying draws near, becomes particularly in- 
teresting. She deserts her associates, assumes a drooping, sickly as- 
pect, and perches upon some eminence where she can reconnoitre the 
operations of other birds in the process of nidification. Ifa discovery 
suitable to her purpose cannot be: made from her stand, she becomes 
more restless, and is seen flitting from tree to tree, till a place of de- 
posit can be found. I once had an opportunity of witnessing a scene 
of this sort, which T cannot forbear to relate. Seeing a female prying 
into a bunch of bushes in search of a nest, I determined to see the 
result, if practicable; and, knowing how easily they are disconcerted 
by the near approaeh of man, I mounted my horse, and proceeded 
slowly, sometimes seeing and sometimes losing sight of her, till I had 
travelled nearly two miles along the margin of a creek. She entered 
every thick place, prying with the strictest scrutiny into places 
where the small birds usually build, and at last darted suddenly into 
a thick copse of alders and brier’, where she remained five or six 
minutes, when. she returned, soaring above the underwood, and re- 
turned to the company she had left feeding in the field. Upon enter- 
ing the covert, I found the nest of a Yellow-Throat, with an egg of 
each. Knowing the precise time of deposit, I noted the spot and date, 
with a view of determining a question of importance —the time re- 
quired to hatch the egg of the Cow Bird, which I supposed to com- 
mence from the time of the Yellow-Throat’s laying the lastegg. A 
few days after, the nest was removed, I knew not how, and I was dis- 
appointed. In the progress of the Cow Bird along the creek’s side, 
she entered the thick boughs of a small cedar, and returned several 
