OUR FOREST CHORISTERS. 181 



most of the nest, and lifts its open mouth far above that of 

 its companion, though obviously both are of the same age, 

 not more than a day old. Ah ! I see — the old trick of the 

 cow-bunting, with a stinging human significance. Taking 

 the interloper by the nape of the neck, I deliberately drop 

 it into the water, but not without a pang, as I see its 

 naked form, convulsed with chills, float doAvn the stream. 

 Cruel ! So is nature cruel. I take one life to save two. 

 In less than two days this pot-bellied intruder would have 

 caused the death of the two rightful occupants of the nest ; 

 so I step in and divert things into their proper channel 

 again. 



8. It is a singular freak of nature, this instinct which 

 prompts one bird to lay its eggs in the nests of others, and 

 thus shirk the responsibility of rearing its own young. 

 The cow-buntings always resort to this cunning trick, and, 

 when one reflects upon their numbers, it is evident that 

 these little tragedies are cpiite frequent. In Europe the 

 parallel case is that of the cuckoo, and occasionally our own 

 cuckoo imposes upon a robin or a thrush in the same man- 

 ner. The cow-bunting seems to have no conscience about 

 the matter, and, so far as I have observed, invariably se- 

 lects the nest of a bird smaller than itself. Its egg is usu- 

 ally the first to hatch ; its young overreaches all the rest 

 when food is brought ; it grows with great rapidity, 

 spreads and fills the nest, and the starved and crowded oc- 

 cupants soon perish, when the parent bird removes their 

 dead bodies, giving its whole energy and care to the foster- 

 child. 



9. The warblers and smaller fly-catchers are generally 

 the sufferers, though I sometimes see the slate-colored 

 snow-bird unconsciously duped in like manner ; and the 

 other day, in a tall tree in the woods, I discovered the 

 black-throated, green-backed warbler devoting itself to this 

 dusky, overgrown foundling. An old farmer to whom I 



