THE COWBIRD. 



No. 5- 



COWBIRD. 



A. O. U. No. 495. Molothrus ater ^Uudd.j. 



Synonyms. — Cow Blackbird; Cuckold. 



Description. — Adult male: Head and neck wood-, seal-, or coffee-brown 

 (variable); remaining plumage black with metallic greenish or bluish irides- 

 cence. Female: Dark grayish brown, showing slight greenish reflections, dark- 

 est on wings and tail, lightening on breast and throat. Young in fust plumage: 

 Like female but lighter below and more or less streaky; above somewhat mottled 

 by buffy edgings of feathers. The young males present a striking appearance 

 when they are assuming the adult black, on the installment plan, by chunks and 

 blotches. Length 7.50-8.00 ( 190.5-203. 2) ; wing 4.40 (111.8) ; tail 3.00-3.40 

 (76.2-86.4); bill .05 (16.5); tarsus .95-1.10 (24.1-27.9). Female, length, wing, 

 and tail one-halt inch less. 



Recognition Marks. — Chewink size ; brown head and black body of male ; 

 brown of female. 



Nesting. — The Cowbird invariably deposits her eggs in the nests of other 

 birds. Eggs, 1 or 2, rarely 3 or 4, with a single hostess, white, often faintly 

 tinged with bluish or greenish, evenly speckled with cinnamon, brown or umber. 

 Av. size, .85 x .65 (21.6 x 16.5), but quite variable. 



General Range. — United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific, north into 

 southern British America, south in winter, into Mexico. 



Range in Ohio. — Common throughout the state, but less so in heavily tim- 

 bered regions. 



IF it were given us to revise the economy of nature we should certainly 

 place this fellow upon the proscribed list. Judged by every sentiment of justice, 

 human and avian, he is an outlaw, and all other birds at least would thank us 

 if we set a price upon his head. To show how thoroughly accepted the opinion 

 is among ornithologists, I cannot do better than emote Mr. Frank M. Chapman : 

 "As .111 outcast he makes the best of things and gathers about him a band of 

 kindred spirits who know no law. There is an air about the group which 

 tells the critical observer that their deeds are evil. No joyous song swells the 

 throat of the male. His chief contribution to the chorus of springtime is a 

 guttural bubbling produced with apparently nauseous effort. In small flocks 

 they visit both pasture and woodland, and are given to following cattle, clus- 

 tering about the feet of the herd, presumably to feed on the insects found 

 there. They build no nest, and the females, lacking every moral instinct, leave 

 their companions only long enough to deposit their eggs in the nests of other 

 and smaller birds. I can imagine no sight more strongly suggestive of a 

 thi in lughly despicable nature than a female Cowbird sneaking through the trees 



