290 



STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE BULLETINS. 



(Kneeland); rests on cattle and picks flies, hence name Cowbird; often in flocks; 

 lays its eggs '•extensively" (L. S. Foster) in other birds' nests, especially in nests 

 of Grass Finch, Chipping and Song Sparrows, Orchard Oriole, Thrushes. Warblers 

 King Bird and Pewee; Mr. A. H. Boies thinks that this bird lays only one egg 



1-1, ;r ' . X 



Cowbird, rednced. 



in any one nest (O. and O., Vol. IX, 1884, p. 90); Jerome Trombley has taken these 

 eggs from the nests of thirty other kinds of birds; Prof. James Satterlee has taken 

 eggs in Greenville, Montcalm Co., from the nests of the Hermit Thrush and the 

 Green-crested Flycatcher; Dr. Gibbs has found its eggs in the nests of the Wood 

 Thrush, Bluebird, eight species of Warblers, Scarlet Tanager, Chewink, Traill's and 

 Acadian Flycatchers, three species of Vireo, and five other species. R. H. Wolcott 

 has found its eggs in the nest of Wilson's Thrush, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow 

 Warbler. Swamp Sparrow. Song Sparrow, Chipi^ing Sparrow, Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 

 Indigo Bird, Orchard and Baltimore Orioles. Wood Pewee, and once in that of the 

 Meadow Lark; F. M. Falconer finds the eggs most frequently in the nest of the 

 Yellow Warbler, and in two cases he has found the eggs covered over and a new 

 set deposited; Dr. Atkins reports finding eggs in the nest of the Golden Crowned 

 Thrush, Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Hooded Warbler; in this peculiar habit this 

 bird is like the European Cuckoo; "usually lays eggs in nests of small birds which 

 have a longer period of incubation, thus giving its young the first chance and 

 'freezing out' the rightful possessor'' (C. J. Davis); S. E. White reports this bird 

 at Mackinac Island, but only as a migrant, and E. E. Brewster writes that it is 

 common at Iron Mountain. A male was seen daily the winter of 1892 at Alma, 

 Michigan, with a flock of English Sparrows." '• I have seen eggs walled in in Yellow 

 Birds' nests'' (Prof. C. A. Davis). A. H. Boies has given a similar case in O. and O., 

 Vol. IX, 1884, p. 128. For interesting article on this species by Dr. M. Gibbs, see 

 O. and O., Vol. XV, 1830, p. 5. 



GENU8 X.\NTHO( EPHALU3 Bon.\p. 



210 4})7(31»). 



Bl.Af;KI5IR». 



Xantliocephaliis \aiitiin4'e|)lialiis {Bonap.). Yki^low headed 



Very rare; "extreme southwestern part of the state; probably breeds" (Gibbs); 

 "never seen at Ann Arbor" (Dr. J. B. Steere); "very doubtful if it breeds in the 

 state" (A. H. Boies); one taken at Iron Mountain, Northern Peninsula, May 17, 



