COWBIRD. 105 



occasionally the rice and corn fields, as well as their more 

 notorious associates, but are more inclined to native food and 

 insects at all times, so that they are more independent and 

 less injurious to the farmer. As they exist in Mexico and 

 California, it is probable that they are also bred in the higher 

 table-lands, as well as in the regions of the north. In Loui- 

 siana, however, according to Audubon, they are rare visitors 

 at any season, seeming more inclined to follow their route 

 through the maritime districts. Over these countries, high in 

 the air, in the month of October, they are seen by day winging 

 their way to the remoter regions of the south. 



We have observed that the Red-wings separate in parties, 

 and pass a considerable part of the summer in the necessary 

 duties of incubation. But the Cow-pen Birds release them- 

 selves from all hindrance to their wanderings. The volatile 

 disposition and instinct which prompt birds to migrate, as the 

 seasons change and as their food begins to fail, have only a 

 periodical influence ; and for a while they remain domestic, 

 passing a portion of their time in the cares and enjoyments of 

 the conjugal state. But with our bird, like the European 

 Cuckoo, this season never arrives ; the flocks live together 

 without ever pairing. A general concubinage prevails among 

 them, scarcely exciting any jealousy, and unaccompanied by any 

 durable affection. From the commencement of their race they 

 have been bred as foundlings in the nests of other birds, and 

 fed by foster-parents under the perpetual influence of delusion 

 and deception, and by the sacrifice of the concurrent progeny 

 of the nursing birds. Amongst all the feathered tribes hitherto 

 known, this and the European Cuckoo, with a few other species 

 indigenous to the old continent, are the only kinds who never 

 make a nest or hatch their young. That this character is not 

 a vice of habit, but a perpetual instinct of nature, appears from 

 various circumstances, and from none more evidently than from 

 this, that the eggs of the Cow Troopial are earlier hatched than 

 those of the foster-parent, — a singular and critical provision, on 

 which perhaps the existence of the species depends ; for did 

 the natural brood of the deceived parent come first into exis- 



