228 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



eggs. They throw out of the nest on occasions one of the 

 eggs that rightly belong there. Sometimes they break 

 and throw out more than one. 



The cowbird is very sly and remains on a nest only a 

 few moments. She often lays in nests that are so small 

 it does not seem possible that she could sit on them. The 

 cowbird usually hatches two or three days before the other 

 birds, and either tramples or starves the rightful chil- 

 dren to death. The cowbirds do very little good, and for 

 every one of them that is hatched at least three valuable 

 birds are destroyed. That was the reason why I declared 

 war on them and exterminated them from our pasture. 



If a cowbird lays an egg in a yellow warbler^s nest, as 

 it frequently does, these wise birds often refuse to act as 

 foster parents. They construct a second bottom in the nest, 

 burying the stranger's egg, sometimes even burying their 

 own, and then lay more eggs on this new bottom and pro- 

 ceed to rear their own family. 



The cowbird belongs to the same family as most of 

 our other blackbirds. None of the blackbirds are excep- 

 tionally desirable birds, most of them having some decid- 

 edly bad habit. Among the most desirable are the red- 

 winged or swamp blackbirds, which we see in large flocks 

 in our groves and fields in the spring and fall. The red- 

 winged blackbirds are tolerably respectable citizens, and 

 if it were not for the fact that they destroy considerable 

 grain, few would object to them. You will have no trouble 

 in recognizing blackbirds, for of course they are black or 

 nearly black, and all of them are moderately small birds. 

 Few other birds are black all over in color except the crows 

 and ravens, and they are much too large to be mistaken 

 for blackbirds. 



