210 NATURAL HISTORY READER, 



The eggs, three in number, were of light flesh-color, uni 

 formly specked with fine brown specks. The cavity of 

 the nest was so deep that the back of the sitting bird 

 sank below the edge. 



7. In tire top of a tall tree, a short distance farther on, 

 1 saw the nest of the red-tailed hawk — a large mass of 

 twigs and dry sticks. The young had flown, but still lin- 

 gered in the vicinity, and, as I approached, the mother- 

 bird flew about over me, squealing in a very angry, savage 

 manner. Tufts of the hair and other indigestible material 

 of the common meadow-mouse lay around on the ground 

 beneath the nest. 



8. As I was about leaving the woods my hat almost 

 brushed the nest of the red-eyed vireo, which hung basket- 

 like on the end of a low, drooping branch of the beech. 

 I should never have seen it had the bird kept her place. 

 It contained three eggs of the bird's own, and one of the 

 cow-bunting. The strange egg was only just perceptibly 

 larger than the others, yet three days after, when I 

 looked into the nest again and found all but one egg 

 hatched, the young interloper was at least four times as 

 large as either of the others, and with such a superabun- 

 dance of bowels as to almost smother his bed-fellows be- 

 neath them. That the intruder should fare the same as 

 the rightful occupants, and thrive with them, was more 

 than ordinary potluck ; but that it alone should thrive, 

 devouring, as it were, all the rest, is one of those freaks 

 of Nature in which she would seem to discourage the 

 homely virtues of prudence and honesty. Weeds and para- 

 sites have the odds greatly against them, yet they wage a 

 very successful war nevertheless. 



John Burroughs. 



