OUR HOME BIRDS. 
103 
sparrow, in a cedar-bush ; the golden-crowned thrush, 
on the ground in the shape of an oven ; the red-eyed 
fly-catcher, a neat hanging nest, suspended by the two 
upper edges from a small sapling or drooping branch ; 
the yellow- bird, in the fork of an alder ; the Mary- 
land yellow-throat, on the ground at the roots of 
brier-bushes; the white-eyed fly-catcher, a hanging 
nest on the bending of a smilax-vine ; and the small 
blue-gray fly-catcher, also a hanging nest, fastened to 
the slender twigs of a tree, sometimes as high as fifty 
or sixty feet from the ground. So that it is quite be- 
wildering to think of the strange variety of nests in 
which the young cow-birds find themselves, and the 
wonderfully-varied scenes on which Ihey open their 
infant eyes. To say nothing of the different nurses, 
blue, brown, and yellow, that hover over them, per- 
haps three or four little sisters and brothers will have 
as many different kinds of step-mothers. 
“ The English cuckoo and the American cow-bird 
are the only birds among the thousands of species 
spread over the face of the globe that ever steal 
their eggs into the nests made by others.” 
“ It is awful mean,” said Malcolm. 
“ That is probably what the cheated birds would 
think if they ever found out that they were cheated, 
but, fortunately for all parties, they never do ; they 
seem, on the contrary, to take as much comfort in 
