COW BUNTING. 
203 
three or four particular species of birds, one egg, much 
larger, and differently marked from those beside it ; I 
had remarked, that these odd-looking eggs were all of 
the same colour, and marked nearly in the same man- 
ner, in whatever nest they lay ; though frequently the 
eggs beside them were of a quite different tint ; and I 
had also been told, in a vague way, that the cow bird 
laid in other birds’ nests. At length I detected the 
female of this very bird in the nest of the red-eyed 
flycatcher, which nest is very small, and very singularly 
constructed; suspecting her purpose, I cautiously with- 
drew without disturbing her ; and had the satisfaction 
to find, on my return, that the egg which she had just 
dropt corresponded as nearly as eggs of the same species 
usually do, in its size, tint, and markings, to those for- 
merly taken notice of. Since that time, I have found 
the young cow bunting, in many instances, in the nests 
of one or other of these small birds ; I have seen these 
last followed by the young cow bird calling out cla- 
morously for food, and often engaged in feeding it; 
and I have now, in a cage before me, a very fine one, 
which, six months ago, I took from the nest of the 
Maryland yellow-throat. 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 continue to be occasionally 
seen, in small solitary parties, particularly along creeks 
and banks of rivers, so late as the middle of June ; after 
which we see no more of them until about the begin- 
ning or middle of October, when they reappear in much 
v.; v . 
