Cowbird WESTERN BIRDS 



do quite as well. It is, indeed, a wonderful sight to come 

 upon a large flock of these birds flying over the field, 

 singing in wild abandon, or attending to nestlings. 



While the birds are much beloved in their northern 

 home, in the south they are much disliked because of 

 their destructiveness. About the last of April they reach 

 the southeastern coast of the United States, just as the 

 rice is sprouting. Settling in the fields they pull up and 

 devour the sprouting kernels. Because of this damage 

 to the crops they are killed by the hundreds. The males 

 precede the females by a few days, coming in flocks of 

 two or three hundreds and being in full song. Surely a 

 wonderful sight, and sound. In the fall when young and 

 old are journeying together, the plumage being very 

 similar at this time, they also visit the rice fields, and 

 are known as Rice, or Reed, birds. 



Robert o' Lincoln has been heralded in song and story 

 more than most birds. One of the recollections of school 

 days is the poem in the reader which ran, Bobolink, 

 Bobolink, spink, spank, spink, being prefaced by a pic- 

 ture of a bird swaying on a reed. 



It is to be regretted that these birds are only tran- 

 sients in California, Grinnell giving four records of their 

 appearance in the State. Perhaps, however, they may 

 yet mend their ways and become more familiar. 



GENUS MOLOTHRUS : COWBIED. 



Cowbird: Molothrus ater ater. 



FAMILY— BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 



The Cow Blackbird is found commonly throughout 

 the United States as far west as the Rockies and in 

 fewer numbers on the Pacific Coast, Nevada, and New 

 Mexico, Dawson reports them as summer residents in 



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