THE COWBIRDS. 609 



Zenaida^exen before it is fledged, will swell itself np and strike angrily 

 at tbe intruder with beak and wings, and by making so brave a show of 

 its iueftieient weapons it probably often saves itself from destruction. 

 But anything- approaching the young Molothrus is welcomed with lint- 

 teriug wings and clamorous cries, as if all creatures were expected to 

 minister to its necessities. 



December 24. — To-day I found a young Molothrus in the nest of 

 Spermophila ccerulescens. He cried for food ou seeing my hand approach 

 the nest. I took him out and dropped him down, when, finding himself 

 on the ground, he immediately made off, half flying. After a hard 

 chase I succeeded in recapturing him, and began to twirl him about, 

 making him scream, so as to inform his foster parents of his situation, 

 for they were not by at the moment. I then put him back in, or rather 

 upon, the little cradle of a nest, and plucked half a dozen large 

 measure worms from an adjacent twig. The worms I handed to the 

 bird as I drew them from the cases, and with great greediness he 

 devoured them all, notwithstanding the ill treatment he had Just 

 received, and utterly disregarding the wild, excited cries of his foster 

 parents, just arrived and hovering within 3 or 4 feet of the nest. 



Last summer I noticed a young Cowbird in a stubble field, jierched 

 on the top of a slender, dry stalk. As it was clamoring at short inter- 

 vals, I waited to see what bird would come to it. It proved to be the 

 diminutive Hapalocercus flaviventris, and I was much amused to see 

 the little thing fly directly to its large foster oft'spring and, alighting on 

 its back, drop a worm into the upturned open mouth. After remaining 

 a moment on its singular perch, the Flycatcher flew away, but in less 

 than half a minute returned and perched again on the young bird's 

 back. I continued watching them until the Molothrus flew off, but not 

 before I had seen him fed seven or eight times in the same manner. 



In the two foregoing anecdotes may be seen the ])eculiar habits of 

 the young Molothrus. As the nests in which it is hatched, from those 

 of the little Serpo^jhaga and Wren to those of Miiuus, vary so much in 

 size and materials, and are placed in such different situations, the 

 young 2[olothrus must have in most of them a somewhat incongruous 

 appearance. But in the habits of the young bird is the greatest incon- 

 gruity or inadaptation. When the nest is in a close thicket or forest, 

 though much too small for the bird, and although the bird itself can 

 not understand its foster parents and welcomes all things that, whether 

 with good or evil design, come near it, the unfitness is not so api)areut 

 as when the nest is in open fields and plains. 



The young Molothrus differs from the true offspring of its foster 

 parents in its habit of ([uitting the nest as soon as it is able, trying 

 to follow the old bird, and placing itself in the most conspicuous place 

 it can find, such as the summit of a stalk or weed, and there demand- 

 ing food with frequent and importunate cries. Thus the little Fly- 

 catcher had acquired the habit of perching on the back of its charge to 

 H. Mis. 184, pt. 2 39 



