cow BUNTIMG. 
211 
She deserts her associates, assumes a drooping-, sickly 
aspect, and perches upon some eminence where she can 
reconnoitre the operations of other birds in the process 
of nidilication. If a discovery suitable to her purpose 
Cannot be made from her stand, she becomes more rest- 
less, and is seen flitting from tree to tree till a place of 
deposit can be found. 1 once had an opportunity of 
witnessing a scene of this sort, which I cannot forbear 
to relate. Seeing a female prying into a bunch of 
bushes in search of a nest, 1 determined to see the 
I result, if practicable ; and, knowing how easily they are 
disconcerted by the near approach of man, 1 mounted 
luy horse, and proceeded slowly, sometimes seeing and 
sometimes losing sight of her, till I had tr.avelled 
nearly two miles along the margin of a creek. She 
entered every thick place, prying with the strictest 
I scrutiny into places where the small birds usually build, 
and at last darted suddenly into a thick copse of alders 
and briers, where she remained five or six minutes, 
when she returned, soaring above the underwood, and 
'■etumed to the company she had left feeding in the 
field. Upon entering the covert, I found the nest of a 
yellow-throat, with an egg of each. Knowing the 
precise time of deposit, I noted the spot and date, with 
a view of determining a question of importance, the 
time required to hatch the egg of the cow bird, which 
I supposed to commence from the time of the ycllow- 
fhroat’s laying the last egg. A few days after, the 
ttest was removed, I knew not bow, and I was disap- 
pointed. In the progress of the cow bird along the 
creek’s side, she entered the thick boughs of a small 
ccdai-, and returned several times before she could 
prevail on herself to quit the place and, upon exami- 
nation, I found a sparrow sitting on its nest, on which 
^he no doubt would have stolen in the absence of the 
cwner. It is I believe, certain, that the cow-pen finch 
never makes’ a forcible entry upon the premises, by 
attacking other birds, and ejecting them from their 
rightful tenements, although they are all, perhaps, 
inferior in strength, except the bluebird, which. 
