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Their sly, surreptitious manners render them exceedingly difficult to study at close range and with anything like satisfactory detail. Are all of them parasites? Probably they are at least to a greater or less degree except one, the bay-winged cowbird of South America, which I shall reserve for notice later on in this chapter.
Warblers' songs are often made up of two distinct portions: one given deliberately, the other hurriedly and with a concluding flourish. Indeed, the same may be said of bird-songs generally, those of the song sparrow, the bay-winged bunting, and the wood thrush being familiar examples.
And can there be anything more fresh and pleasing than this first simple strain heard from the garden fence or a near hedge, on some bright, still March morning? The field or vesper sparrow, called also grass finch 8 and bay-winged sparrow, a bird slightly larger than the song sparrow and of a lighter gray color, is abundant in all our upland fields and pastures, and is a very sweet songster.
A few field sparrows and chippers showed themselves punctually on the 15th; but they were only scouts, and the great body of their followers were more than a week behind them. I saw no bay-winged buntings until the 22d, although it is likely enough they had been here for some days before that.
Instead of inflicting its eggs on its more distant avian relatives, it watches its chance and slyly drops them into the domicile of its bay-winged cousins, and actually makes them hatch and rear its offspring!
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