COW BUNTING. 
205 
doubt, others to whom the same charge is committed ; 
but all these I have myself met with acting in that 
capacity. 
Among these, the yellow-throat and the red-eyed 
flycatcher appear to he particular favourites ; and the 
kindness and affectionate attention which these two 
little birds seem to pay to their nurslings, fully justify 
the partiality of the parents. 
It is well known to those who have paid attention 
to the manners of birds, that, after their nest is fully 
finished, a day or two generally elapses before the 
female begins to lay. This delay is in most cases 
necessary to give firmness to the yet damp materials, 
and allow them time to dry. In this state it is some- 
times met with, and laid in by the cow bunting; the 
result of which I have invariably found to be the 
desertion of the nest by its rightful owner, and the 
consequent loss of the egg thus dropt in it by the 
intruder. But when the owner herself has begun to 
lay, and there are one or more eggs in the nest before 
the cow bunting deposits hers, the attachment of the 
proprietor is secured, and remains unshaken until in- 
cubation is fully performed, and the little stranger is 
able to provide for itself. 
The well known practice of the young cuckoo of 
Europe in turning out all the eggs and. young which it 
feels around it, almost as soon as it is hatched, has been 
detailed in a very satisfactory and amusing manner, by 
the amiable Dr Jenner,* who has since risen to immortal 
celebrity, in a much nobler pursuit ; and to whose 
genius and humanity the whole human race are under 
everlasting obligations. In our cow bunting, though 
no such habit has been observed, yet still there is some- 
thing mysterious in the disappearance of the nurse’s own 
eggs soon after the foundling is hatched, .which happens 
regularly before all the rest. From twelve to fourteen 
days is the usual time of incubation with our small 
birds ; but, although I cannot exactly fix the precise period 
* See Philosophical Transactions for 1788, Part II. 
