The architecture of birds / [Anon].

  • James Rennie
Date:
[1831]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The architecture of birds / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    at the height of fifty or sixty feet from the ground. There are, no 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 be particular faveurites, and the kindness and. affec- -tionate 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 sometimes met with, and laid in by the cow-bunt- ing, 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 dropped 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 reinains unshaken until incubation is fully performed and. the little stranger is able to provide for itself. In the month of July last,’ continues Wilson, ‘1 took from the nest of the Maryland yellow-throat, which was built among the dry leaves at the root of a briar bush, a young male cow-bunting, which filled and occupied the whole nest. I had previously watched. the mo- tions of the foster-parents for more than an hour, in order to ascertain whether any more of their young were lurking about or not, and was fully satisfied that there were none. ‘They had, in all probability, pe- rished in the manner before mentioned. I took this bird home with me, and placed it in the same cage with a red-bird (Lozia cardinalis), who at first, and for several minutes after, examined it closely, and
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