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Brewer's Remarks on 
that the mouth is the only means by which a bird can be 
supposed to convey its egg ? Is it not far more probable 
that in this instance the egg is conveyed in the bird’s 
claws ? Improbable as this hypothesis may seem, it is 
much less so than any explanation, that has yet been 
found, for several facts connected with the history of this 
bird. Thus its egg is very frequently found in the nest 
of the golden-crowned thrush. Now the formation of 
this nest is such as utterly to preclude the possibility of 
the cow-troopial ever entering it for the purpose of 
depositing its egg. “ It builds,” says Wilson, “ a snug, 
somewhat singular nest on the ground, in the woods, 
generally on a declivity facing the south. Though sunk 
below the surface, it is arched over, and only a small hole 
left for entrance.” One of these nests, found in Cam- 
bridge by Mr. William T. Rotch, is, from measurement, 
but two inches in diameter. The entrance to the nest 
has been widened since it was found, but is not now more 
than one and a half inches wide. The cow-troopial is 
seven inches in length, eleven in alar extent, and about 
four through the body. Does it seem more improbable 
that the egg is conveyed by the bird, than that a body 
seven inches long and four thick can introduce itself 
through a passage one and a half inches wide into a space 
not more than two inches in diameter ? Mr. Ord might 
at least have found some other explanation, before he 
pronounced the only one that has yet been offered, for 
these singular facts, “ the most preposterous idea that 
ever entered the brain of a naturalist.” 
Mr. Ord, in speaking of the opinion advanced by 
Audubon that birds have the means of distinguishing an 
addled egg, says ; “ I have reason to believe that birds 
possess no such knowledge ; and I am confident that 
the Cow Black-Bird. 
429 
when an addle egg is removed, it is not by the owner of 
the nest, but by some vagrant bird in search of food.” A 
few pages after, we find the following sentence, which in 
a manner involves a contradiction to the above : “ It is 
admitted that the cow-bunting never drops her egg into 
the nest of a bird that has commenced incubation.” Now 
if Audubon is wrong, as Mr. Ord says he is, in the first 
position, may not Mr. Ord’s latter position be unfounded ? 
If Mr. Ord is not incorrect in the latter, why is Audubon 
necessarily in error? For we see not on what grounds 
we cannot allow to birds the power of distinguishing 
addled eggs, and yet allow the cow-troopial the power of 
ascertaining whether the eggs in the nest in which it pro- 
poses to deposit its own, have been set upon or not. 
Mr. Ord concludes his article by several positions 
which he assumes. As the first four are but the reverse 
of assumptions which he pronounced untenable and which 
have been already considered, I will not detain you by a 
repetition of them. The remainder are, 
1st. “ When two eggs of the cow-bunting are hatched 
in the nest of a bird smaller than herself, the young of 
the foster-bird, for the want of room, are either smothered 
in the nest, or jostled out of it.” 
2nd. “ When only one egg of the cow-bunting is 
hatched in the nest of a bird smaller than herself, the 
young cow-bird, and the young of the owner of the nest, 
are nourished and reared with equal affection, and dwell 
in harmony together.” 
3rd. “ When the cow-bunting drops her egg in the 
nest of a bird larger than herself, the selected nurse does 
not eject the egg, but hatches the stranger, and nourishes 
it as her own.” 
4th. “ The cow-bunting will drop her egg into a nest 
which contains more than one egg.” 
