288 
COW BUNTING. 
nest it was found. I claim, however, no merit for a discovery 
not originally my own, these singular habits having long been 
known to people of observation resident in the country, whose 
information, in this case, has preceded that of all our school 
philosophers and closet naturalists, to whom the matter has, 
till now, been totally unknown. 
About the 25th of March, or early in April, the Cow-pen 
Bird makes his first appearance in Pennsylvania 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 con- 
tinue to be occasionally seen, in small solitary parties, parti- 
cularly 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 reappear in 
much larger flocks, generally accompanied by numbers of the 
Redwings; between whom and the present species there is 
a considerable similarity of manners, dialect, and personal 
resemblance. In these aerial voyages, like other experienced 
navigators, they take advantage of the direction of the wind ; 
and always set out with a favourable gale. My venerable 
and observing friend, Mr Bartram, writes me, on the 13th of 
October, as follows: — 66 The day before yesterday, at the 
height of the northeast storm, prodigious numbers of the 
Cow-pen Birds came by us, in several flights of some thou- 
sands in a flock ; many of them settled on trees in the garden 
to rest themselves ; and then resumed their voyage southwards. 
There were a few of their cousins , the Redwings, 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 
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