But
the birds which are building now are generally safe from the
parasite. Only rarely is a cowbird's egg found after the middle of
July. No cowbirds have been seen since the first week of the month,
save the young one on the stump, which the field-sparrow was feeding
this morning. They disappear early, seeking seclusion for the
moulting. When they emerge from their hiding places they form into
flocks, spending their days in the grain-fields and near the rivers
where the food is most abundant and easy to procure. At nightfall they
congregate, like the red-winged blackbirds, in the sand-bar willows on
the river islands.
* * * * *
Daintily flitting from one branch to another, the redstart weaves
threads of reddish gold and black, like strands of night and noon,
among the old trees. He has wandered over through the woods from the
creek, where his mate built a cup-like nest in a crotch toward the top
of a slender white oak. Busy always, he stays but a few moments and
then passes on as silently as a July zephyr. The halting voice of the
preacher, the red-eyed vireo, comes out of the thicket; then, from an
oak overhead, where a little twig is trembling, the softer voice of
the warbling vireo queries: "Can't you see it's best to sing and work
like me?", with the emphasis on the "me.
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