ICTERID^ 



243 



United States both hu and his wife are vcritahk- 

 balls of fat ;ind many are killed for food. 



Sometimes Robert is not content with unv wife 

 and mates with two or more, llu' ynun^ often 

 leave the nest before they are able to fly, but 

 the mother still continues to care for them until 

 they can fend for themselves. 



On its northward misjration the Bobolink en- 

 ters the United States from the south at a time 

 when the rice fields arc freshly sown, pulls up 

 the young jjlants, and feeds upon the seeds. For- 

 tunately its stay in this district is not lons^ and 

 it soon hastens onward to its breeding ground 

 in the north. While rearing its young, its chief 

 food and the almost exclu.iive diet of the nest- 

 lings is insects. Among these insects weevils, 

 cutworms, and grasshoppers are conspicuous. 

 After the young are able to fly, the whole family 

 gathers into a small flock and begins to live 

 upon vegetable food. This consists for the most 

 part of weed seeds and grass seeds. Sometimes 

 grain, most commonly oats, in the milk, is eaten ; 

 but the damage done in this way is small and 



is more than oilfset by the enormous destruction 

 of weed seeds. 



As the summer advances the small flocks unite 

 into larger ones and move southward. On their 

 way they frequent the reedy marshes about the 

 mouths of rivers and on the inland waters of the 

 coast region. During this migration they subsist 

 on the wild rice. It is at this time that the Bobo- 

 link is commonly known as the Reed-bird and, 

 fattened bv its rice-diet, is treated as a game 

 bird. 



By the end of August the Bobolink and its 

 family have left their breeding grounds. It 

 reaches the cultivated rice fields in the South as 

 the crop is ri])ening. .\ decidedly useful bird 

 in its northern home, the Bobolink becomes ;' 

 serious pest when it reaches the rice fields. Unit- 

 ing with various species of Blackbirds, it pil- 

 lages the fields. The havoc made on the ripening 

 grain by the Rice-bird, as the Bobolink is com- 

 monly known in this part of the country, is very 

 great and it not infrequently causes losses of 

 thousands of dollars to individual planters. 



COWBIRD 



Molothrus ater ater {Boddacrt) 



A. O. U. Numlier 495 See Color Plate 74 



Other Names. — Cow Blackbird ; Cow BuntitiK ; Lazy 

 Bird ; Brown-headed Blackbird ; Cuckold ; Cow-pen 

 Bird: Buffalo Bird: Brown-headed Oriole. 



General Description. — Length. 8 inches. Males are 

 greenish-black with brown fore parts ; females are 

 brownish-gray. Bill, shorter than head, conical, and 

 compressed ; wings, moderately long and pointed ; tail, 

 about Yi length of wing, even or slightly rounded. 



Color. — Adult Male: Head, neck, and upper 

 chest plain bro'wn ; rest of plumage glossy greenish- 

 black, the gloss usually more violet (often distinctly 

 so) on upper back, next to brown of hindneck ; iris, 

 brown. Adult Fem.^le: Above, brownish-gray, faintly 

 glossed with greenish, the feathers with darker centers 

 and blackish shaft-streaks, especially on back; wings 

 and tail more dusky brownish-gray with paler edgings, 

 these nearly white on longer primaries ; under parts, 

 paler brownish-gray usually streaked (narrowly) with 

 darker, the chin and throat much paler (sometimes 

 almost dull whitish), and, together with the chest, 

 unstreaked : iris, brown. Young : Above, varying from 

 dark hair-brown to sooty grayish-brown, the feathers 



with narrow pale grayish-brown and whitish margins 

 (these usually indistinct and often obsolete on crown 

 and hindneck) ; the wing-coverts more conspicuously 

 margined with dull bufFy whitish; under parts, con- 

 spicuously streaked with sooty grayish-brown or hair- 

 brown and dull buffy or whitish, the latter on margins 

 or lateral edges of feathers, the darker color prevailing 

 forward. 



Nest and Eggs. — A noted parasite, depositing its 

 eggs, usually singly, in nests of smaller birds, but as 

 many as five have been found in one nest : number of 

 eggs unknown and the circumstances of deposition 

 render a correct conclusion impossible. Eggs are white, 

 spotted and blotched pretty generally over entire surface 

 with chestnut and burnt-umber. 



Distribution. — Temperate North America in general, 

 except portions of Pacific coast ; north to about 49° 

 in more eastern portions, to 55° 30' in the interior; 

 west to British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, 

 and southeastern California; south in winter to central 

 and southeastern Mexico; breeding south to Georgia, 

 Louisiana, and Texas. 



The Cowbird is that interesting phenomenon 

 in nature called a parasite. Like the European 

 cuckoo it leaves all family care to others. It 

 Vol. II — 17 



might well serve as the emblem of free love. 

 Many changes have been rung on the fidelity 

 of birds to their mates, on the mating of certain 



