44 THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 



This bird is about as disreputable as a bird well can be 

 and this fact seems to be accepted by others of the bird 

 kind. Although occasionally seen in company with a 

 Red-winged Blackbird it had no companions until the in- 

 troduction of the English Sparrow, when it found a con- 

 genial companion. It builds no nest under any circum- 

 stances, but drops its eggs — which are white, evenly 

 speckled with brown and different shades of gray, and 

 nine- tenths by seven- tenths of an inch in size — into the 

 nests of other birds, invariably selecting those of birds 

 smaller than itself and those of a mild and affectionate 

 disposition. It is a well known fact that birds do not lay 

 their eggs for a day or two after the completion of a nest; 

 should the Cow Bird drop an egg into a nest in this interim 

 the chances are that it will be thrown out or that the 

 rightful owner of the nest abandons it. But if an egg 

 or two has been laid in a nest by its builder the chances 

 are that the addition of an egg by a Cow Bird will pass un- 

 noticed and that the bird will rear the offspring thus 

 foisted upon it. As soon as large enough to fly the young 

 birds join those of their kind. 



The bird spends its winter in the southern United States 

 and Mexico and comes north about the first of April, re- 

 turning south in October; large numbers go farther north 

 in the spring. Some winter in the southern part of New 

 Jersey. 



Its cry is about as unmusical as it can possibly be, 

 somewhat resembling cluck-see. 



About the only redeeming trait of the bird is its almost 

 constant chase after insects and worms; it generally fol- 

 lows the cattle, picking up seeds and insects from the 

 droppings and from hoofs. It also frequently destroys 

 grasshoppers. 



fVrrwr, Blue. See Great Blue Heron. 



Creek^ Brofiflbiih See Lesser Scaup. 



