434 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male in spring: Entire top of head glossy black; occiput, nape and hind neck 

 rusty white, buffy, or pure white; outer scapulars, rump and upper tail-coverts white or 

 whitish; interscapulars mainly black, usually streaked with rusty or whitish; entire under 

 parts clear black except for whitish or rusty edgings on some feathers of abdomen and under 

 tail-coverts; wings and tail pure black, the tertiaries rather broadly margined with whitish, 

 and the first three primaries witli very narrow white edges; bill bluish black; iris dark 

 brown; legs and feet brown. 



Adult female in spring: Top of head deep brown, with a median stripe of grayish buff, 

 wliich is also the ground color of the entire upper parts, but plentifully streaked and spotted 

 with dark brown and blackish, most heavily on the scapulars and interscapulars; imder 

 parts clear buff or grayish buff, more or less streaked on sides, flanks and under tail-coverts 

 with blackish, the chin nearly pure white; wings and tail brownish, with narrow light 

 edgings; up]3er mandible reddish brown, lower flesh colored; feet and legs pale; iris light 

 brown. 



Adult male in autumn: Similar to summer female, but the grovmd color a deeper, richer 

 buff, and the streaking more pronounced. Autumn females, and young of both sexes, 

 are similar but paler than the autumn male, the females usually separable by smaller 

 size. 



Male: Length 7 to 7.60 inches; wing 3.50 to 4; tail 2.75 to 3; culmen about .55. Female 

 averaging about one-half inch shorter, the wing about one-fourth inch less. 



196. Cowbird. Molothrus ater ater (Bodd.). (495) 



Synonyms: Cow Blackbird, Cow Bunting, Lazy Bird, Brown-headed Blackbird. — 

 Oriolus ater, Boddaert, 1783. — Molothrus pecoris, Aud., Bona})., Baird, and others. — 

 Emberiza pecoris, Wils. 



Plate XIJV. 



Smallest of our black])irds. Male, metallic greenish black, the entire 

 head and neck brown; female, dirty grayish brown. 



Distribution. — United States from the Atlantic to the i^icific, north 

 into southern British America, south in winter into ^lexico. 



This, the smallest of our blackbirds, is abundant throughout the state 

 and well known not only from its constant association wdth cattle in the 

 l)asture, where it is seen feeding about their feet and perching upon their 

 backs, but also on account of the remarkable habit of laying its eggs in the 

 nests of other birds. It never builds a nest of its own, nor does the female 

 take any care whatever of its young. The birds are polygamous and are 

 commonly found during spring and summer in small flocks of twenty or 

 less in which the males may outnumber the females or vice versa. 



When the female is about to lay she searches for the nest of some smaller 

 l)ird, preferably a warbler or a sparrow, and watching her opportunit}' 

 deposits her egg in the nest while the owner is temporarily absent. Usually 

 the owner of the nest accepts the situation and hatches the egg along with 

 her own, and eventually the young cowbird is reared, very often at the 

 expense of the other young; for, being larger, stronger and more voracious, 

 the young Cowbird demands and receives the larger part of the food brought 

 by the parents, so that, if not crowded out of the nest, the rightful young 

 are often starved to death. That this is not always the case is shown by 

 the fact that nests are occasionally found containing a single young Cowbird 

 and two or more young warblers or sparrows all nearly or quite read}^ to 

 leave the nest. It is much more common, however, to find a pair of warblers 

 or vireos feeding a single young Cowbird. It is claimed that the Cowbird 

 is careful to select a nest already containing eggs, but this certainly is not 

 true in Michigan, since scores of deserted nests are found each year con- 



