AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
123 
terials of which the nest is formed with the stalks of rushes 
around. When placed in the ground, less care and fewer 
materials being necessary, the nest is much simpler and 
slighter than before. The female lays five eggs, of a very 
pale light blue, marked with faint tinges of light purple 
and long straggling lines and dashes of black. It is not 
uncommon to find several nests in the same thicket, within 
a few feet of each other. 
15. Cow Bunting. 
The most remarkable trait in the character of this species 
is the unaccountable practice it has of dropping its eggs 
into the nests of other birds, instead of building and hatch- 
ing for itself; and thus entirely abandoning its progeny to 
the care and mercy of strangers. 
About the twenty-fifth of March, or early in April, the 
Cow-pen Bird makes his first appearance from the south, 
sometimes in company with the Red-winged Blackbird, 
more frequently 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. 
Those that pass in May and June, are frequently ob- 
served loitering singly about solitary thickets, reconnoiter- 
ing, 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: — the Blue-bird, the Chipping Sparrow, 
the Golden-crowned Thrush, the Red-eyed Flycatcher, 
the Yellow-bird, the Maryland Yellow-throat, the White- 
eyed Flycatcher, the small Blue Gray Flycatcher, and the 
Black and White Creeper; and, no doubt, many others, to 
whom the same charge is committed. 
There is never but one egg of the Cow Bunting dropped 
in the same nest. This egg is somewhat larger than that 
of the Blue bird, thickly sprinkled with grains of pale 
brown and gray on a dirty white ground. It is of a size 
proportionable to that of the bird. 
16. Burn Swallow. 
Early in May the Barn Swallow builds its nest. From 
the size and structure of the nest, it is nearly a week before 
it is completely finished. It is in the form of an inverted 
cone, with a perpendicular section cut off on that side by 
which it adhered to the wood. At the top it has an extension 
of the edge, or offset, for the male or female to sit on occa- 
sionally, as appears by the dung; the upper diameter is 
about six inches by five, the height externally seven 
inches. This shell is formed of mud, mixed with fine hay 
as plasterers do their mortar with hair, to make it adhere 
the better; the mud seems to be placed in regular strata, or 
layers, from side to side; the hollow of this cone, (the 
shell of which is about an inch in thickness,) is filled with 
fine hay, well stuffed in; above that is laid a handful of 
very large downy geese feathers; the eggs are five, white, 
specked and spotted all over with reddish brown. Owing 
to the semi-transparency of the shell, the eggs have a 
slight tinge of flesh colour. The whole weighs about two 
pounds. The situation of these nests is generally on the 
pin which unites the rafters together. > 
They have generally two broods in the season. The 
first make their appearance about the second week in June; 
and the last brood leave the nest about the tenth of August, 
1 9. White-Eyed Flycatcher. 
This bird builds a very neat little nest, often in the 
figure of an inverted cone; it is suspended by the upper 
edge of the two sides, on the circular bend of a prickly 
vine, a species of Smilax that generally grows in low 
thickets. Outwardly it is constructed of various light 
matei’ials, bits of rotten wood, fibres of dry stalks, of weeds, 
pieces of paper, commonly newspapers, an article almost 
always found about its nest; all these substances are inter- 
woven with the silk of caterpillars, and the inside is lined 
with fine dry grass and hair. The female lays five eggs, 
pure white, marked near the great end with a very few 
small dots of deep brown or purple. They generally raise 
two brood in a season. They seem particularly attached 
to thickets of this species of Smilax, and make a great ado 
when any one comes near their nest; approaching within 
a few feet, looking down, and scolding with great vehe- 
mence. 
IS. House Wren. 
This well known and familiar bird arrives about the 
middle of April; and about the eighth or tenth of May 
begins to build its nest, sometimes in the wooden cornice 
under the eaves, or in a hollow cherry tree, but most 
commonly in small boxes, fixed on the top of a pole, in or 
near the garden, to which he is extremely partial, for the 
great number of caterpillars and other larvae with winch 
it constantly supplies him. If all these conveniences are 
wanting, he will even put up with an old hat, nailed ‘on 
the weather-boards, with a small hole for entrance; and 
