THE 00 LOG 1ST. 
43 
The Yellow Warbler and its Enemy. 
It is well known that the Cow Bird is the 
niost dreaded enemy of tlie little Sunimer 
Warbler. Not the bird, itself, \s the di- 
rect cause of this, but its malicious propen- 
sity to dejiosit e;jrgs in the nest of our sniull 
tVieud. Many are the stratagems this litth; 
harbinger of good employs to rid himself of 
the inevitable evil that it is certain will re- 
sult from the eggs of the monster Cow Bird, 
and, iu most cases, one way or the otiicr 
successful. 
The ofVeu read habit of building an ad- 
ditional story" to its nest, to cover up 
lite CL'gs of the Cow Bird is true, and we| 
onee became the possessors ofJ;he most sin- 1 
gular specimen of tijis supplement-architec- 
ture that we ever heard of. It was long, 
and of nlniost the same form as the hemp 
of the old-fashione<l liousc-wife while on the 
spindle. It was about six inches long, and 
at the top, about two and a half inches in 
diameter on the outside. It bulged out in 
two places, about midway between top and 
bottom, and at these points was quite loose 
and fragile. When lirsl ibuud, it was 
thought to be the nest of some other spe- 
cies, but the substan<*e ; its textnre ; ami 
lastly, the appearance of the chattering 
owners, dispelled that idea, and we took 
the curiosity. It had no eggs iu, — at least 
in the upper story" — and had evidently 
undergone the period of incubation. 
We took the nest home and examined it 
all over. Inside something seemed to rat- 
tle and shake, and this, <'ombined with the 
fact that it was of such odd shape, induced 
us to examine its construction. On sepa- 
rating the top from the fu*st protuberance, 
we saw a perfect nest iu the lower par:, 
which contained two Cow Birds* eggs, both 
being broken from getting sluiken about. 
Curiosity led us further. We t(»re off the 
part constitiiting the second nest, develop- 
i ig the unfinished portion of a third uef^t! 
In this there w;is nothing to be seen on first 
si riit, but examination showed the decayed 
rontents of some egg ; undoubtably that of 
H Cow Bird. We were considerably amus- 
ed at this — an example of the ingenuity of 
our feathered companions. 
CoLLECTOKS are often astonished to find 
sometimes four or five eggs in a nest n^^or ; 
than the usual number, and it is not an un- 
usual thing to find more than this. When 
out collecting in '73, we found a nest of the 
Belted Kingfisher containing seven eggs, 
and again this year, one with six ami an- 
other with seven in. Just for the sake of 
ascertaining how many eggs the House 
Wren will lay. if pressed, we once took 
out four eggs that had been freshly laid. 
Afterward we took two, three, three and 
one, at different times, respectively, mak- 
ing thirteen eggs, the largest number we 
know of ever having been collected, Tl.e 
Golden-winged Woodpecker (Flicker) has 
been known to lay eight eggs voluntarily, 
and the Broad-winged Hawk has been de- 
prived of three eggs on two separate occa- 
sions. It would not surprise us if we sliou'd 
hear of RnfiTed Grouse laying forty eggs 
and Rail twenty. 
PuESERViNG Broken Eti(;s. — If you 
possess in your collection, eggs fragment- 
ary, broken, or cracked, do not cast them 
aside as worthless. Even in eases of half 
the shell being lost, if a rare egg, preserve 
it. You may possibly obtain more, and 
when you do; the fragmentaiy egg may be 
thrown away. If your si)ecimcn can boast 
of a *Miistory," and you have enough of it 
(the shell) left to make a presentable ap- 
pearance, keep if^ and under no circum- 
stances let it be destroyed further. Some 
collectors detest the idea of having anything 
but perfect specimens in their ciibiuets, and 
will not hear of keeping defaced ones, even ' 
though there be no possibility of <»btaining 
more. True, you cannot measure such 
eggs very well, but that is of secondary im- 
portance to the value of the shell as an ob- 
ject of curiosity. 
Audubon's original "Birds of America" 
sold for 81000 per copy. 
