72 
COW BUNTING. 
herself a nest, but dropped her eggs in the nests of other birds ; but 
among the thousands of different species that spread overthat 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. Of the 
reality of the former there is no doubt ; it is known to every schoolboy 
in Britain ; of the truth of the latter I can myself speak with confi- 
dence, from personal observation, and from the testimony of gentlemen, 
unknown to each other, residing in different and distant parts of the 
United States. The circumstances by which I became first acquainted 
with this peculiar habit of the bird are as follows. 
I had, in numerous instances, found in the nests of three or four par- 
ticular species of birds, one egg, much larger and differently marked 
from those beside it; I had remarked that these odd-looking ejr» - s were 
all of the same color, and marked nearly in the same manner, in what- 
ever nest they lay ; though frequently the eggs beside them were of a 
quite different tint ; and I had also been told, in a vague way, that the 
Cow-bird laid in other birds' nests. At length I detected the female of 
this very bird in the nest of the Red-eyed Flycatcher, which nest is very 
small, and very singularly constructed ; suspecting her purpose, I cau- 
tiously withdrew without disturbing her ; and had the satisfaction to find, 
on my return, that the egg which she had just dropped corresponded as 
nearly as eggs of the same species usually do, in its size, tint and mark- 
ings to those formerly taken notice of. Since that time I have found 
the young Cow Bunting, in many instances, in the nests of one or other 
of these small birds ; I have seen these last followed by the young Cow- 
bird calling out clamorously for food, and often engaged in feeding it ; 
and I have now, in a cage before me, a very fine one which six months 
ago I took from the nest of the Maryland Yellow-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 observation 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 Cowpen-bird 
makes his first appearance in Pennsylvania from the south, sometimes 
in company with the Red-winged Blackbird, more frequently in de- 
tached parties, resting early in the morning, an hour at a time, on the 
tops of trees near streams of water, appearing solitary, silent and fa- 
tigued. They continue to be occasionally seen, in small solitary par- 
ties, 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 
