UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 333 



states. Though small in size, he is not so in consequence : his com- 

 ing is hailed by the sportsman with pleasure ; while the careful plan- 

 ter looks upon him as a devouring scourge, and worse than a plague 

 of locusts. Three good qualities, however, entitle him to our notice, 

 particularly as these three are rarely found in the same individual— 

 his plumage is beautiful, his song highly musical, and his flesh excel- 

 lent. In the Fall, the Reed-birds resort, in prodigious numbers, to the 

 shores of our large rivers, where grows the Zizania aquatica^ or Wild 

 oats, on the seeds of which they feed, and soon become excessively 

 fat. They are said to equal the far-famed Ortolan of Europe. 



Cow Bunting. The most remarkable trait in the character of this 

 species, is the unaccountable practice it has of dropping its eggs 

 into the nests of other birds, instead of building and hatching for 

 itself; and thus entirely abandoning its progeny to the care and mercy 

 of strangers. More than two thousand years ago it was well known 

 that the Cuckoo of Europe never built herself a nest, but dropped 

 her eggs in the nests of other birds; but among the thousands of 

 different species that spread over that and other parts of the globe, 

 no other instance of the same uniform habit has been found to exist, 

 until discovered in the bird now before us. The Cow-bird generally 

 lays but one egg in one place, though instances have been known of 

 one nest containing two of her eggs. 



The Scarlet Tanager is perhaps the most showy foreigner of all 

 those that regularly visit us from the torrid regions of the south. He 

 is drest in the richest scarlet, with wings and tail of a deep black. On 

 or about the first of May he makes his appearance in Pennsylvania. 

 He rarely approaches the habitations of man, unless perhaps to the 

 orchard, where he sometimes builds, or to the cherry trees in search 

 of fruit. The depth of the woods is his favourite abode. This species 

 builds its nest on the horizontal branch of a tree ; the eggs are three 

 in number, of a dull blue, spotted with brown or purple. 



Among all the birds that inhabit our forests, there is none that 

 strikes the eye of a stranger, or even a native, with so much bril- 

 liancy as this. Seen among the green leaves, with the light falling 

 strongly on his plumage, he really appears beautiful. If he has little 

 of melody in his notes to charm us, he has nothing in them to dis- 

 gust. His manners are modest, easy and inoffensive. He commits 

 no depredations on the property of the husbandman ; but rather bene- 

 fits him by the daily destruction of many noxious insects. He is a 

 striking ornament to our rural scenery, and none of the meanest of 

 our rural songsters. Such being the true traits of his character, we 

 shall always with pleasure welcome this beautiful, inoffensive stran- 

 ger, to our orchards, groves and forests. 



Pttvee Flycatcher. This well-known bird is one of our earliest 

 spring visitants, arriving in Pennsylvania about the first week in 

 March, and continuing with us until October. It begins to build 

 about the twentieth of March, on some projecting part under a 

 bridge — in a cave — in an open well, five or six feet down — under a 

 shed — in a spring-house, and such like places; the eggs are five, 

 pure white, with two or three dots of red near the great end. These 

 birds sometimes rear three broods in one season. 



The notes of the Pewee, like those of the Blue-bird, are pleasing, 

 not for any melody they contain, but from the ideas of spring and 

 returning verdure, with all the sweets of this lovely season, which 

 are associated with his simple but lively dittv. Towards the middle 



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