The Birds of Wyoming. Ill 



ly different from that of the people of the South Atlantic 

 coast. In the rice growing districts there is no question but 

 what they often seriously injure a crop and for that reason 

 they are the despised bird of that region, where they are 

 slaughtered by the thousands, and still they annoy the rice 

 grower and many claim that they destroy as high as five bushels 

 of rice per acre each season. 



Unquestionably they wage a serious war upon the rice 

 grower and can truly be considered his worst enemy- In Wyo- 

 ming their food is almost entirely weed seeds and insects and 

 no one thinks of them as a detrimental species, but all favor 

 their existence. Both Drexel and McCarthy reported this 

 species from Fort Bridger ; Williston reports a single speci- 

 men at Lake Como ; Bond notes that the bobolinks are not un- 

 common at Cheyenne, that he has taken them yearly for sev- 

 eral years and sometimes within the city limits ; Jesurun finds 

 them quite common at Douglas ; Harden reported a bobolink 

 from Wyoming on one of his first expeditions to the state. 



495. Molothrus ater (Bodd.). 

 Cowbird. 



Summer resident ; common. This is the little black bird 

 that likes to live with the cattle upon the plains. They are 

 usually seen feeding near the head of a steer, for while eat- 

 ing he is continually scaring up insects which fall easv prey to 

 the cowbird. It is not an unusual thing to see them perched 

 upon the cattle's backs. These birds never rear their young. 

 They always deposit their eggs in other birds' nests and are 

 dependent upon the kindness of their associates to perpetu- 

 ate their kind. There has been a great deal of discussion con- 

 cerning the food habits of this species, and whether or not 

 they are beneficial to the farmer and ranchmen. F. E. L. Beal 

 (Bui. 13, U. S. D. Ag., Div. of Biol., pp. 29 and 30) gives 

 the following note concerning the food of this species : 



"Of the 544 stomachs onlv 2 were filled with grain alone, 



-(8) 



