96 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Destroy the Cowbird. 



COLI.RGE Hill, Ohio, July i, 1887. 



Out this morning with my 22-calibre 

 rifle, I ?hot a number of grown young of 

 the above-named pests, which are now 

 abundant and unwary. I have made it a 

 point for the past few years to kill and 

 destroy- every bird of this species I could. 

 Their habit of laying their eggs in the 

 nests of other and smaller birds is so well 

 known that little need be said in regard 

 to it. 



We can renienil)e]" how often we have 

 found a nest of some very desirable species 

 and after a perhaps difficult climb, found 

 it to contain an egg of " Molothrus aier," 

 and that, as a consequence, the legitimate 

 occupant had deserted ; or again, that we 

 have found a nest in course of constPuction, 

 and that, upon returning a week or so later, 

 it contained — not what we expected, but, 

 to our chagrin, an egg of the cowbird, and 

 naught else. I am also inclined to the 

 opinion that in many cases the cowbird, 

 upon depositing one of its eggs in a nest, 

 throws out or otherwise destroys one of 

 the eggs the nest already contained. Of 

 course this is not always the case, but in 

 the majority of instances it is found that a 

 nest containing egais of the cowbird does 

 not contain a full clutch of its distinctive 

 eggs; Again, how often have we found a 

 small, fragile nest containing one or more 

 eggs, which we found, when we visited it 

 at a later date, had in the meantime been 

 spyed out by a female cowbird, and that, 

 in her efforts to deposit an egg in it, she 

 had partially overturned it and spilled the 

 contents. There is but one consolation in 

 such cases, and that is that the parents 

 usually desert the nest, and the cowbirds' 

 egg is left to incubate itself. But the above 

 is not by any means the greatest injury 

 that this plague inflicts on bird life. The 

 trouble really conies after incubation has 

 been completed. Almost invariably the 

 other species are smaller and weaker. The 

 young C'owbird is naturally unusually 

 strong and vigorous, and after a few days 

 manages to secure the lion's share of the 



food, and tiuis starves the balance of the 

 fledglings: or, failing in this, he soon 

 becomes so large that he has not "elbow 

 room" in the nest with the others, and so 

 crowds them overboard to perish. This 

 state of affairs, bad as it is, is yet made 

 worse by the fact that the Cowbird, not 

 satisfied with one, often deposits two, and 

 sometimes three eggs in one nest, thus 

 destroying all chance that the parents have 

 of rearing offspriiig. 



We have several times found instances 

 in which, when a Cowbird had laid an 

 egg in an otherwise unoccupied nest, the 

 birds had roofed over the egg, thus making 

 a new bottom to the nest. But why is it 

 that they do not violently eject the egg 

 from the nest, thus easily and effectually 

 ridding themselves of it? Now, my object 

 in writing the above has not been so much 

 to tell the readers of The Oologist w^hat I 

 suppose they already full well know, but 

 to draw their attention to it, and to ask 

 them, one and all, to show that most inap- 

 propriately named bird, the Cowbird, no 

 mercy. Destroy him whenever you can. 

 Shoot him. If you find any of his young 

 or eggs in any bird's nest, throw them out: 

 and if you do not desire the eggs, break 

 them, for I would venture to say that, as a 

 rule, every Cowbird 's egg destroyed means 

 life to three young birds of some better 

 species and a diminution of the number of 

 Molothrns Atcr. H. A. Koch. 



Nesting of the Trail's and Acadian 

 Flycatchers. 



There is a piece of beech and maple 

 woods dark and shady, through which 

 runs a small brook, not far from my resi- 

 dence that seems to be a very favored resort 

 for many varieties of small woods l)irds 

 during the breeding season. I began May 

 10th, 1887, toolv three sets of three each 

 with nests of the Acadian Flycatcher. In 

 every instance the nest was placed in a 

 fork at the end of a beech limb usually not 

 over five or six feet from the groimd. 

 From that date until the 22d of June I had 

 taken seventeen sets of this very interesting 

 and somewhat retired little Flycatcher from 



