WATKINS ON BIRDS THAT NEST IN MEADOWS. 71 



tions, where it is killed by thousands and sent to the markets. The food 

 consists of grains, seeds and insects. With us in the north it is of no 

 harm and some importance. In the south a pest. One of our finest 

 open meadow species. 



The Cowbird, Molotlirus ater, presents a subject in ornithology hard to 

 treat by a person who loves birds as I do. He neither builds his nest 

 nor feeds his family and as is usual with the biped loafer, we find the 

 above traits accompanied by those of bold trespass and destruction of his 

 neighbors belongings, at the same time requiring and expecting the lat- 

 ter to rear his family by their hard work. The eggs of the Cowbird, 

 which are white or bluish-white, varyingly speckled with brown and 

 black, are parasitically installed, apparently at the convenience 

 of the layer, as occasion presents itself, within the nests of so many 

 species that it would be out of the question to think of naming 

 them here. Of the meadow nesters, which are included in the present 

 list, the eggs of the Cowbird have been found in the nests of the Mourn- 

 ing Dove, Bobolink, Red-winged Blackbird, Meadowlark, Black-throated 

 Bunting, Grass Finch, Song Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow and Prairie 

 Horned Lark. The food of this bird consists of seeds and grain and 

 some insects, especially ticks from the newly shorn sheep. A pernicious 

 pest, setting a miserable example to man and beast. 



The Grass Finch, Poocaetes gramineus, is a bird so well known the 

 State over as the "Ground bird,"' that the mention of that term is at once 

 understood in every household. In all homes the ''ground-bird" is a 

 well known and significant term to those who seem to think that all small 

 birds of a brown color seen upon the ground in the fields belong to one 

 species and that species is the ''Ground bird." I have several times been 

 hotly arraigned because I said that the terms "sparrow," "blackbird," 

 "ground-bird," etc., were misleading and should never be carelessly used 

 to designate a particular species; and even called a "bird crank" when 

 I asked some ornithologists of this type to pick out a "ground-bird" from 

 the skins in the sparrow drawers of my cabinet. I wish that every mem- 

 ber of the Michigan Academy of Science would aid in introducing the 

 correct and less confusing English names for birds, mammals, plants, 

 etc., among the common people who may be interested enough to learn, 

 for until this is done, the popular influence of the scientist, who has 

 spent years in preparing himself to be of use to the masses, will be of lit- 

 tle avail. The Grass Finch, Vesper Sparrow or Bay- winged Bunting, as 

 it is variously and correctly called in different places, is one of the 

 ground nesting species which has increased particularly in numbers, 

 since the clearing up of the land and bids fair in time to outnumber in 

 individuals any other species. Arriving usually in April, it is seen every- 

 where about the fields and along the roadside. The nest is situated in the 

 grass upon the ground almost anywhere and is in such situations com- 

 posed of grasses and stems with rootlets and occasionally horse hairs 

 for a lining. Other nests are made in the cornfields next to the hills of 

 grain and this seems to be a favorite location, where the materials used 

 are mostly grass roots placed in a natural depression in the mellow soil. 

 The outside rows are most used for their nests. In one corn row eighty 

 rods long, I have found nine different nests on the same day, all with 

 eggs. The nesting season extends through May, June and July. Eggs 



