cow BUNTING. 



147 



low-throat, and from which the figures of the young bird, and male 

 Cow-bird in the plate were taken; the figure in the act of feeding 

 it is the female Maryland Yellow-throat, in whose nest it was found* 

 I claim, however, no merit for a discovery not originally my own, 

 these singular habits having long been known to people of obser- 

 vation resident in the country, whose information, in this case, has 

 preceded that of all our school philosophers and closet naturalists ; 

 to whom the matter has till now been totally unknown. 



About the twenty-fifth of March, or early in April, the Cow- 

 pen-bird makes his first appearance in Pennsylvania from the south, 

 sometimes in company with the Red-winged Blackbird, more fre- 

 quently in detached parties, resting early in the morning, an hour 

 at a time, on the tops of trees near streams of water, appearing 

 solitary silent and fatigued. They continue to be occasionally seen, 

 in small solitary parties, particularly along creeks and banks of 

 rivers, so late as the middle of June; after which we see no more 

 of them until about the beginning or middle of October, when they 

 re-appear in much larger flocks, generally accompanied by num- 

 bers of the Red-wings; between whom and the present species 

 there is a considerable similarity of manners, dialect, and personal 

 resemblance. In these aerial voyages, like other experienced na- 

 vigators they take advantage of the direction of the wind ; and al- 

 ways set out with a favourable gale. My venerable and observing 

 friend, Mr. Bartram, writes me on the thirteenth of October as fol- 

 lows.—" The day before yesterday, at the height of the north-east 

 " storm, prodigious numbers of the Cow-pen birds came by us, in 

 " several flights of some thousands in a flock ; many of them set- 

 " tied on trees in the garden to rest themselves ; and then resumed 

 " their voyage southward. There were a few of their cousins, 

 " the Red-wings, with them. We shot three, a male and two 

 " females.^' 



From the early period at which these birds pass in the spring, 

 it is highly probable that their migrations extend very far north. 



