COW BUNTING. 
295 
“ That the Fringilla never builds a nest for itself, you may 
assert without the hazard of a refutation. I once offered a 
premium for the nest, and the negroes in the neighbourhood 
brought me a variety of nests ; but they were always traced 
to some other bird. The time of depositing their eggs is 
from the middle of April to the last of May, or nearly so ; 
corresponding with the season of laying observed by the small 
birds on whose property it encroaches. It never deposits but 
one egg in the same nest, and this is generally after the 
rightful tenant begins to deposit hers, but never, I believe, 
after she has commenced the process of incubation. It is 
impossible to say how many they lay in a season, unless they 
could be watched when confined in an aviary. 
“ By a minute attention to a number of these birds when 
they feed in a particular field in the laying season, the deport- 
ment of the female, when the time of laying draws near, 
becomes particularly interesting. 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 nidifi cation. If a discovery suitable 
to her purpose cannot be made from her stand, she becomes 
more restless, and is seen flitting from tree to tree, till a place 
of deposit can be found. I once had an opportunity of wit- 
nessing 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, I determined to see the result, if practicable ; and know- 
ing how easily they are disconcerted by the near approach of 
man, I mounted my horse, and proceeded slowly, sometimes 
seeing and sometimes losing sight of her, till I had travelled 
nearly tw^o miles along the margin of a creek. She entered 
every thick place, prying with the strictest 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 returned to the company she had left feeding 
in the field. Upon entering the covert, I found the nest of a 
