EASTERN BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD 445 



that "in New England Cowbirds usually roost by themselves; often 

 they choose thick coniferous trees or other thickets in the shelter of 

 which they pass the night in great numbers. Another favorite 

 roosting place is in the grass and reeds far out on wide meadows." 



John E. Galley has sent me some notes on a large winter roost of 

 cowbirds and starlings at Midland, Tex. At the height of their 

 abundance, he estimated that the roost contained "between 10,500 

 and 11,000 individuals, of which 2,000 to 2,500 were cowbirds." 

 They were roosting in Chinese elms around the courthouse. "The 

 starlings were grouped in the topmost branches, the cowbirds below 

 them." 



Voice. — Aretas A. Saunders contributes the following study: 

 "Some of the sounds produced by the cowbird are distinctly seasonal, 

 produced mainly, if not entirely, by the male, and therefore should be 

 considered songs, though they are not particularly pleasing musically. 

 The commonest of these consists of a prolonged, high-pitched, squeaky 

 note, followed by two or three shorter, lower-pitched, usually sibillant 

 notes. This song may be written wheeeee tsitsitsi. My records are all 

 somewhat different in details, but the first note is pitched from C"" 

 to F"", and the notes that follow are from one and a half to two and a 

 half tones lower, the lowest note in all the records pitched on G'". 

 The first note may be all on one pitch or slurred slightly upward. A 

 not uncommon variation of this has the first note followed by a down- 

 ward slur which is explosive and sibilant at its beginning; this sounds 

 like wheeeee tseeya and is strongly suggestive of a sneeze. 



"During courtship, when the male is going through his bowing and 

 his wing and tail spreading, another kind of song is produced, some- 

 thing like that described for the grackle under similar circumstances, 

 but it usually goes from low to high pitch abruptly — two or three low 

 notes and then a few high, squeaky ones. The low notes are not harsh, 

 but gurgly. It sounds like glub-glub-kee-he-heek. The interval between 

 them is from three and a half tones to an octave, and the pitch between 

 them varies from C" to C"". 



"The seasons for these songs last from the arrival of the birds to 

 early July, when the egg laying is over and the birds gather in flocks to 

 feed in fields for the rest of the summer. Call notes are a short chuck, 

 a slurred preeah, and a loud, harsh rattle." 



Eugene P. Bicknell (1884) says: "There seems to be no regularity 

 about singing in the fall; but I have heard imperfect songs and half- 

 songs at different times within a month after the middle of September. 

 Sometimes, in the autumn, when Cowbirds are assembled in small 

 flocks, they become garrulous, when their commingled utterance^of 

 low notes produces a sound as of subdued warbling." 



