A GREAT, callow, overgrown Cow- 

 bird, fed by a ditninutive pair of 

 industrious and attentive Chipping 

 Sparrows, is the most palpable fraud of the summer 

 season. The over-burdened foster parents have to 

 stand on tip-toe to reach the open beak of the hungry 

 pretender, who has turned out their own progeny 

 to die helplessly beside the parental nest. How 

 importunate he is ! If they fly across the field he flies 

 after them, as if he were angry at the freedom they 

 presumed to take, and determined by force, if neces- 

 sary, to make them more assiduous and attentive. 

 But they do not shirk the burden that fate and 

 intentional deception have imposed on them. They 

 sktury about in the edge of the grain field and along 

 the roadside, picking up every insect in sight and 

 returning in haste to the big, indolent impostor 

 sitting on the rail with bill readily agape. 



He seems to have a phenomenal capacity for 



swallowing. No matter how frequent the visits of his 



little foster parents, he is ever ready to demand more. 



His insatiable appetite seems to puzzle and worry 



105 



