COW BUNTING. 
211 
She deserts her associates, assumes a drooping-, sickly 
aspect, and perches upon some eminence where she can 
reconnoitre the operations of other birds in the process 
of nidification. If a discovery suitable to her purpose 
cannot be made from her stand, she becomes more rest- 
less, and is seen flitting- from tree to tree till a place of 
deposit can he found. 1 once had an opportunity of 
witnessing- a scene of this sort, which I cannot forbear 
to relate. Seeing- a female prying into a bunch of 
bushes in search of a nest, I determined to see the 
result, if practicable ; and, knowing how easily they are 
disconcerted by the near approach of man, I mounted 
my horse, and proceeded slowly, sometimes seeing and 
sometimes losing sight of her, till I had travelled 
nearly two miles along the margin of a creek. She 
entered every thick place, prying with the strictest 
scrutiny into places where the small birds usually build, 
and at last darted suddenly into a thick copse of alders 
and briers, where she remained five or six minutes, 
when she returned, soaring above the underwood, and 
returned to the company she had left feeding in the 
field. Upon entering the covert, I found the nest of a 
yellow-throat, with an egg of each. Knowing the 
precise time of deposit, I noted the spot and date, with 
a view of determining a question of importance, the 
time required to hatch the egg of the cow bird, which 
I supposed to commence from the time of the yellow- 
throat’s laying the last egg. A few days after, the 
nest was removed, I knew not how, and I was disap- 
pointed. In the progress of the cow bird along the 
creek’s side, she entered the thick boughs of a small 
cedar, and returned several times before she could 
prevail on herself to quit the place ; and, upon exami- 
nation, I found a sparrow sitting on its nest, on which 
she no doubt would have stolen in the absence of the 
owner. It is, I believe, certain, that the cow-pen finch 
never makes a forcible entry upon the premises, by 
attacking other birds, and ejecting them from their 
rightful tenements, although they are all, perhaps, 
inferior in strength, except the bluebird, which. 
