158 BIEDS 



with one of her eggs. Sure enough, there, within two 

 feet of the ground, in a small paw-paw bush, was a nest 

 of the exquisite Indigo Bunting, containing three young 

 Indigo birds, about half -grown, and right on top of them 

 was a freshly laid egg of the Cowbird. This is the only 

 instance in which I have actually driven the bird from 

 the nest. It is the only instance where I have found a 

 Cowbird 's egg in a nest containing half -grown young 

 birds. 



The parental feeling in the foster-parents is much 

 stronger than their power of identifying their own young, 

 so the intruder continues to be cared for to the exclusion 

 of the smaller weaklings, until, in many instances, the 

 foster-parents' own young die from overcrowding and 

 neglect, while the young Cowbird thrives on an undivided 

 food supply. I have seen a blue-gray Gnatcatcher, not 

 much larger than a Hummingbird, feeding a young Cow- 

 bird larger than the whole nest and its contents. 



The Cowbird is the one so often seen on the backs 

 of cattle grazing in the roadside pastures. 



The Cowbird was justly named, when the older orni- 

 thologists dubbed it, ''Mol'othrus" — the Vagabond, 

 Tramp, Parasite. 



