312 ZOOLOGY BIRDS. 



MOLOTHEUS PECOEIS (Cm.). 

 Cowbird. 



Fring ilia pecoris, GM., Syst. Nat., i, 1788, 910 (female). 



MoJothrm pecoris, WOODH., Sitgreave's Exp. Zufli & Col. Eiv., 1854, 80. BD., Birds 

 N. A., 1858. 524. Id., Ives' Col. Exped., 1857-58, pt, iv, 0. Id., U. S. & 

 Mex. Bound. Surv., ii, pt, ii, 1859, Birds, 15. UEERM., P. E. E. Eep., x, 

 pt. ii, 1859, 52. HENRY, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pbila., 1859, 107 (New 

 Mexico). HAYD., Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., xii, 18G2, 1C9. COTJES, Proc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. Pbila., I860, 90 (Fort Whipple, Ariz.}. Id, ib., 18G8, 84. STEV., 

 U. S. Geol. Snrv. Terr., 1870, 465. ALLEN, Bull. Mus. Coinp. Zool., 1872, 

 178. COUES, Key N. A. Birds, 1872, 155. SNOW, Birds Kan.. 1872, 11. 

 YARROW & HENSHAW, Eep. Orn. Specs., 1872, Wheeler's Exped., 1874, 

 19. UENSHAW, An. Lye. Nat. Ilist. N. Y., xi, 1874, l.Id, An. List Birds 

 Utah, 1872, Wheeler's Exped., 1874, 45. JW., Eep. Orn. Specs., 1873, 

 Wheeler's Exped., 1874, 64, 82. BD., BREW., & EiDG.,N. A. Birds, ii, 1874, 

 154, pi. xxxii, figs. 6, 7. ALLEN, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., June, 1874, 16, 

 18, 29, COUES, Birds Northwest, 1874, 180. 



Var. OBSCURUS, (Gin.) 



Molothrus obscurus, CASS., Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila,, 1866, 18 (Lower California and 



Mexico). COOPER, Birds Cal., i, 1870, 260. 

 Molothrus pecoris var. obncvrvs, COUES, Key N. A. Birds, 1872, 155. BD., BREW., & 



EiDG., N. A. Birds, ii, 1874, 154 (in text), pi. xxxii, f. 8. COUES, Birds 



Northwest, 1874, 180. 



In Utah and Colorado, the Cow Bunting appears in about the same 

 relative abundance as in the Eastern States, and its habits here are also pre- 

 cisely similar. In the early spring, and into June, these birds move about 

 in small flocks of males and females, and at this season they are perhaps 

 more frequently met with than at any other, perhaps because they are more 

 widely diffused ; the habit of the female of intruding her eggs into the nests 

 of smaller and weaker species to be in due season hatched, and the offspring 

 to be fed and brought up by its per force willing foster-parents, inducing 

 it to frequent localities where later it is rarely found. As has been noticed 

 by many observers, these birds become, in July, exceedingly scarce, 

 inducing in some the belief that they entirely forsake the regions in mid- 

 summer where, earlier and later, they are numerous. I am, however, 

 inclined to think that, when they have shifted the responsibility of their 

 family cares upon the shoulders of more respectable and devoted birds, 

 they merely retire to the more secluded and unfrequented districts, and thus 



