434 
CUCKOOS. 
to whom the care of rearing the vagrant foundling is uniformly 
consigned. 
But we may turn with satisfaction to the conjugal history of 
our own subject, which, early in May or soon after its arrival, 
may be at times observed obstinately engaged in the quarrels 
of selective attachment. The dispute being settled, the nest is 
commenced, and usually fixed either in the horizontal branches 
of an apple-tree or in a thicket, a thorn-bush, crab, cedar, or 
other small tree in some retired part of the woods. The fabric 
is usually very slovenly and hastily put together, and possesses 
scarcely any concavity for the reception of the young, who in 
consequence often fall out of their uncomfortable cradle. The 
nest is a mere flooring of twigs put together in a zig-zag form, 
then blended with green weeds or leaves and withered blos- 
soms of the maple, apple, or hickory catkins. A nest near the 
Botanic Garden had, besides twigs, fragments of bass-mat, and 
was very uncomfortably heated, and damp with the fermenta- 
tion of the green tops of a species of maple introduced into it, 
and the whole swarmed with thrush-lice or millipedes. The 
eggs are of a bluish-green color, often pale, varying in the 
shade and without spots ; they are somewhat round and rather 
large. If they are handled before the commencement of incu- 
bation, the owner generally forsakes the nest, but is very tena- 
cious and affectionate towards her young, and sits so close as 
almost to allow of being taken off by the hand. She then 
frequently precipitates herself to the ground, fluttering, tumb- 
ling, and feigning lameness, in the manner of many other affec- 
tionate and artful birds, to draw the intruder away from the 
premises of her brood. At such times the mother also adds to 
the contrivance by uttering most uncouth and almost alarming 
guttural sounds, like qua qnah gwaih, as if choking, as she runs 
along the ground. While the female is thus dutifully engaged 
in sitting on her charge, the male takes his station at no great 
distance, and gives alarm by his notes at the approach of any 
intruder ; and when the young are hatched, both unite in the 
labor of providing them with food, which, like their own, con- 
sists chiefly of the hairy caterpillars, rejected by other birds, 
