COW BUNTING. 
78 
or middle of October, when they reappear in much larger flocks, gen- 
erally accompanied by numbers 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 expe- 
rienced navigators, they take advantage of the direction of the wind ; 
and always set out with a favorable gale. My venerable and observing 
friend, Mr. Bartram, writes me on the 13th of October, as follows: 
"•The clay before yesterday, at the height of the north-east storm, pro- 
digious numbers of the Cowpen-birds came by us, in several flights of 
some thousands in a flock ; many of them settled 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. 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 
our small birds which build so early. Those that pass in May and 
June, are frecpiently observed loitering singly about solitary thickets, 
reconnoitering, 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 described 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 
Yellow-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 pen- 
sile nest on the bending of a smilax vine; and the small Blue Gray 
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, ap- 
pear to be particular favorites; and the kindness and affectionate atten- 
tion 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 manners 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 ne- 
cessary to give firmness to the yet damp materials and allow them time to 
