The Cowbird {Molotknis ater) 



By Charles Bendire 



Length : 7^^ to 8 inches. 



Range: United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific, north into southern 

 British America, south in winter into Mexico. 



The Cowbird ordinarily arrives in good-sized flocks in the Middle states, 

 from its winter home in the south, during the last half of March. In the 

 more northern states it rarel\- comes before the first week in April, and more 

 frequently after the middle of this month. The males predominate in numbers 

 over the more plainly colored females, and generally precede them by several 

 days. Soon after arriving, these flocks commence to break up and scatter in 

 small companies of from six to twelve individuals and disperse generally over 

 the country. It prefers more or less cultivated disertics, especially river valleys, 

 where other birds are abundant, and rarely pentrates far into heavily timbered 

 sections or mountainous regions, excepting in Colorado, where it has been met 

 with at altitudes up to 8,000 feet. 



The food of the Cowbird consists princijially of vegetable matter, such as 

 seeds of dififerent kinds of noxious weeds, like ragweed, smartweed, foxtail, 

 or pigeon grass, wild rice, and the smaller species of grains, berries of different 

 kinds, as well as of grasshoppers, beetles, ticks, flies, and other insects. Taking 

 its food alone into consideration, it does perhaps more good than harm. 



While the Cowbird is fairly common in most of the states east of the 

 Mississippi river, it is far more noticeable in the regions west of this stream, 

 although perhaps not much more abundant. In the prairie states this is especially 

 the case, and one will rarely see a herd of cattle there without an attending 

 flock of Cowbirds, who perch on their backs, searching for parasites, or follow 

 them along the ground, hunting for suitable food. They generally act in con- 

 cert ; when one settles on the ground the others follow shortly afterward, and if 

 one starts to fly, the remainder take wing also. Their flight resembles that of 

 the red-winged Blackbird. 



In the spring of the year several males may frequently be seen perched on 

 some fence rail or the limb of a tree, each endeavoring to pour out his choicest 

 song. This consists of various unreproducible guttural sounds, uttered while 

 all the feathers are puffed out, the head lowered, and evidently produced only 

 by considerable efi^ort on the part of the performer. One of their call notes 

 sounds somewhat like sprcele, others resemble the various squeaks of the red- 

 winged Blackbird, and all are difficult to reproduce on paper. 



It is a well-known fact that the Cowbird is a parasite, building no nest but 

 inflicting its eggs usually on smaller liirds. leaving to them the labor and care of 

 rearing its young. 



The laying season rarely begins before !Mav 15. an<l continues for about 



450 



