WESTERN BIRDS Cowbird 



Washington, east of the Cascades, and rare or casual in 

 the western part of the State. They are reported as 

 wintering in southeastern California, and Willett gives 

 several cases of the eggs and young of the Dwarf Cow- 

 bird (M. a. obscurus) having been found in the willow 

 regions of the lowlands of Los Angeles County. How- 

 ever, the birds are rare in California, and we hope will 

 remain so. 



The male is about eight inches long with brown head, 

 neck, and breast, the other parts being a glossy green- 

 black. The female is a dull brownish-gray. On the 

 Plains this bird was called Buffalo-bird, and now where 

 large herds of cattle live they are found. 



This is the bird about which little good is recorded. 

 Most people despise him, or her, because the regular 

 maternal duties of building a nest and rearing young like 

 other birds are shirked by the Cowbirds. 



They come north in March or April — the males pre- 

 ceding — and then, banded together in promiscuous flocks 

 of both sexes, they forage throughout the country, espe- 

 cially where there are cattle. They are not at all afraid 

 of these large animals and unconcernedly walk among 

 them gleaning insects. They even fly onto their backs 

 in search of parasites. It was these parasites on the 

 buffaloes that attracted the birds and kept them about. 



Economically, they are considered beneficial as they 

 eat grasshoppers, weevils, leaf-hoppers, wasps, ants, 

 flies, etc., as well as weed seeds. It seems, however, to 

 be a case of giving the devil his dues for every bird is 

 raised at the expense of some more useful species. The 

 female Cowbird from April to June occasionally slips out 

 from the flock and skulking through the trees and bushes, 

 hunts up the unprotected nest of some smaller bird. 

 Warblers, Vireos, Flycatchers, and Gnatcatchers are 

 favorites, with the Warblers probably bearing the brunt 

 of this shiftlessness. Here, in the absence of the rightful 



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