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COW BUNTING. 
Blue Bird, are the only birds in whose nests I have found the 
eggs or the young of the Cow-pen Finch, though doubtless 
there are some others. 
u What becomes of the eggs or young of the proprietor ? 
This is the most interesting question that appertains to this 
subject. There must be some special law of nature which 
determines that the young of the proprietors are never to be 
found tenants in common with the young Cow Bird. I shall 
offer the result of my own experience on this point, and leave 
it to you and others better versed in the mysteries of nature 
than I am to draw your own conclusions. Whatever theory 
may be adopted, the facts must remain the same. Having 
discovered a Sparrow’s nest with five eggs, four and one, and 
the Sparrow sitting, I watched the nest daily. The egg of 
the Cow Bird occupied the centre, and those of the Sparrow 
were pushed a little up the sides of the nest. Five days after 
the discovery, I perceived the shell of the Finch’s egg broken, 
and the next the bird was hatched. The Sparrow returned 
while I was near the nest, with her mouth full of food, with 
which she fed the young Cow' Bird with every possible mark 
of affection, and discovered the usual concern at my approach. 
On the succeeding day, only two of the Sparrow’s eggs 
remained, and the next day there were none. I sought in 
vain for them on the ground, and in every direction. 
u Having found the eggs of the Cow Bird in the nest of a 
Yellow- throat, I repeated my observations. The process of 
incubation had commenced, and on the seventh day from the 
discovery, I found a young Cow Bird that had been hatched 
during my absence of twenty-four hours, all the eggs of the 
proprietor remaining. I had not an opportunity of visiting 
the nest for three days, and, on my return, there was only one 
egg remaining, and that rotten. The Yellow-throat attended 
the young interloper with the same apparent care and affection 
as if it had been its own offspring. 
<c The next year my first discovery was in a Blue Bird’s 
nest built in a hollow' stump. The nest contained six eggs, 
