COW BUNTING. 2 g$ 



" 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 neighbourhood 

 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 tenant begins to deposit hers, but never, I believe, 

 after she has commenced 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 deport- 

 ment of the female, when the time of laying draws near, becomes 

 particularly interesting. She deserts her associates, assumes 

 a drooping, sickly aspect, and perches upon some eminence 

 where she can reconnoitre the operations of other birds in the 

 process of nidification. If a 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 deposit 

 can be found. I. once had an opportunity of witnessing a 

 scene of this sort which I 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 approach 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 sud- 

 denly into a thick copse of alders and briers, where she re- 

 mained five or six minutes, when she returned, soaring above 

 the underwood, and returned to the company she had left 

 feeding in the field. Upon entering the covert, I found the 



