THE ALLIES OF THE PIGEON 393 



considered by ornithologists to be unusually intelligent, and 

 by some is even considered the highest bird group. Closely 

 allied to the crows and jays are the blackbirds and orioles 

 (Icter'idae). In this family is the cowbird, which has the 

 habit of laying its eggs in the nests of other birds, which are 

 usually smaller than itself, and of leaving the egg to be 

 hatched by its foster parent. A South American cowbird 

 lays its eggs in the nest of another species of cowbird, which 

 does not possess this parasitic habit fully developed, since 

 the latter sometimes builds its own nest and sometimes lays 

 its eggs in the nests of other birds. The orioles are remark- 

 able for their elaborately interwoven hanging nests, much 

 deeper than the somewhat similar hanging nests of the 

 vireos. 



The finches and sparrows (Fringiriidae) are the largest 

 family of birds. However varied the members of this group 

 are in form and color, they agree, usually, in the possession 

 of a stout, conical bill, adapted to crushing seeds. The Eu- 

 ropean house sparrow, often called the English sparrow 

 {Pas'ser domes' ticus), is well known to dwellers in nearly 

 every town and city in the United States. Introduced from 

 Europe into this country in the neighborhood of Brooklyn, 

 in 1851 and 1852, the house sparrow has since spread so 

 widely that it may now be said that its conquest of the cen- 

 ters of population in our country is almost complete. It has 

 made itself at home in our city streets, and has managed to 

 pick up a living where another bird would starve to death. 

 Most of the sparrows belong to the fields and hedges, where 

 their brownish coloration serves to make them inconspicuous. 



Our American robin belongs to the family of thrushes 

 (Tur'didae). Though not a gifted songster, like some of its 

 near relatives, the robin is dear to all dwellers in the country. 

 With the bluebird and the song sparrow it shares the honor 

 of being spring's harbinger among the birds in eastern North 



