148 



COW BUNTING 



Those which pass in the months of March and April can have no 

 opportunity of depositing their eggs here, there being not more 

 than one or two of om^ small birds which build so early. Those 

 that pass in May and June, are frequently observed loitering singly 

 about solitary thickets, reconnoitring, no doubt, for proper nurses, 

 to whose care they may commit the hatching of their eggs, and 

 the rearing of their helpless orphans. Among the birds selected 

 for this duty are the following, all of which are figured and de- 

 scribed in this and the preceding volume: — the Blue-bird, which 

 builds in a hollow tree; the Chipping Sparrow, in a cedar bush; 

 the Golden-crowned Thrush, on the ground, in the shape of an 

 oven; the Red-eyed Flycatcher, a neat pensile nest, hung by the 

 two upper edges on a small sapling, or drooping branch ; the Yel- 

 low-bird in the fork of an alder; the Maryland Yellow-throat on 

 the ground at the roots of briar bushes ; the White-eyed Flycatcher, 

 a pensile nest on the bending of a smilax vine; and the small Blue 

 Grey Flycatcher, also a pensile nest, fastened to the slender twigs 

 of a tree, sometimes at the height of fifty or sixty feet from the 

 ground. The three last mentioned nurses are represented on the 

 same plate with the bird now under consideration. There are no 

 doubt, others to whom the same charge is committed; but all these 

 I have myself met with acting in that capacity. 



Among these the Yellow-throat, and the Red-eyed Flycatcher, 

 appear to be particular favorites ; and the kindness and affectionate 

 attention which these two little birds seem to pay to their nurslings, 

 fully justify the partiality of the parents. 



It is well known to those who have paid attention to the man- 

 ners of birds, that after their nest is fully finished, a day or two 

 generally elapses before the female begins to lay. This delay is 

 in most cases necessary to give firmness to the yet damp materials 

 and allow them time to dry. In this state it is sometimes met 

 with, and laid in by the Cow Bunting; the result of which I have 

 invariably found to be the desertion of the nest by its rightful 



