420 
Brewer’s Remarks on 
1st. “There is never more than one egg of the cow- 
bunting deposited in the same nest.” 
2nd. “ The egg invariably hatches before those of the 
foster bird.” 
3rd. “ The foster mother, in seeking food for her first- 
born, neglects her own eggs, and their embryos conse- 
quently perish.” 
4th. “ The birds selected by the cow-bunting as 
nurses of her progeny are always smaller than herself.” 
He is undoubtedly correct as to the first position. His 
views on this point he makes good, by a number of in- 
stances which he adduces. But it has not, as he would 
lead us to infer, been assumed, by either Wilson or Nut- 
tall, nor yet, in all probability, did Audubon so intend. 
Wilson merely says, “ I have never known more than 
one egg of the cow-bunting dropped in the same nest 
and Mr. Ord afterwards tells us that the fact of two being 
sometimes found, became known to Wilson before his 
death. And even the position of Mr. Audubon, un- 
founded as it may seem at a hasty glance, and wholly at 
variance with established facts, which was evidently the 
one had in view when Mr. Ord maintained the unten- 
ableness of the above position, if fairly considered, will 
admit of a construction, not only not untenable, but one 
which Mr. Ord’s own observations will tend to confirm. 
His words are ; “ The cow-bird never deposits more than 
one egg in a nest, although it is probable it thus leaves 
several in different nests, especially when we consider the 
vast number of the species that are to be seen on their 
return southward ?” If, by this, Audubon means to assert 
that the same cow-bunting never lays more than one egg 
in the same nest, and not that there is never more than 
one cow-bunting’s egg in the same nest, (which last 
the Cow Black-Bird. 
421 
meaning Mr. Ord does seem to attribute to his words, 
but which is by no means a fair inference) he is undoubt- 
edly correct. “ The simultaneous hatching of the eggs,” 
(to use Mr. Ord’s own words) in every instance where 
two cow-troopial’s eggs have been found in the same 
nest, “ proves that they had been deposited by different 
individuals.” 
Mr. Ord would not certainly have us suppose he 
considered the fact as unknown to Nuttall. For the 
latter writes, “ I have sometimes remarked two of these 
eggs in the same nest, but in this case, one of them 
commonly proves abortive.” “ If one commonly proves 
abortive,” remarks Mr. Ord, “ both sometimes must 
hatch. Now as Mr. Nuttall does not inform us that he 
ever saw two cow-buntings in the same nest, we are 
compelled to infer that the circumstance of abortion is 
related at second hand.” I wish not to pass a too hasty 
judgment, but I cannot but regard the inference involved 
in the last sentence, one of the most hastily deduced that 
ever fell from the pen of a naturalist. It is not only not 
justified by Mr. Nuttall’s words, but appears to me direct- 
ly contradictory to Mr. Ord’s own deductions, in the line 
preceding. If Mr. Nuttall does not tell us, in as many 
words, that he ever saw two cow-buntings in the same 
nest, it certainly is much fairer to infer that fact from 
what he does say, than the contrary. For he tells us, 
that in several instances, he has seen two cow black-bird’s 
eggs in the same nest ; in most of which cases, one of 
them commonly proved abortive ; and as they did not do 
so in every instance, Mr. Ord very justly infers that in 
some of them both must have hatched ; and in the same 
breath, he jumps at once to the very opposite conclusion, 
that because Mr. Nuttall does not tell us that he saw the 
