180 
COW BUNTING. 
the garden to rest themselves; and then resumed their voyage 
“ southw^ard. 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 frequently 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 sap- 
ling, or drooping branch; the Yellow-bird in the fork of an al- 
der; the Maryland Yellow-throat on the ground at the roots of 
briar bushes; the White-eyed Flycatcher, a pensile 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, some- 
times 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 Flycatch- 
er, appear to be particular favourites; and the kindness and af- 
fectionate attention 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 man- 
ners 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 necessary to give firmness to the yet damp ma- 
