138 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



COWBIED. 



Some birds are interesting solely because their habits 

 and manners present wide variations from the ordinary 

 phases of bird-life so common around us. The cowbird is 

 one of the birds whose strange habits invite our interest, 

 and it is no wonder that it has become notorious in an avi- 

 fauna comprising so many birds whose morals are un- 

 questioned, and whose habits are so nearly in accord with 

 the recognized standard of virtue. Though the cowbird is 

 well known to both scientific and lay observers, its 

 strange behavior and stealthy movements at certain 

 seasons have prevented the acquisition of full data con- 

 cerning many features of its life, and a few unfounded 

 speculations about its habits have become current. In 

 our American fauna the cowbird occupies a parallel place 

 with the European cuckoo, and boys and girls who know 

 something of the strange habits of the latter may think of 

 the cowbird in a similar light. The two species of Amer- 

 ican cuckoos are birds of better morals than their Euro- 

 pean namesake, and regularly make nests in which to de- 

 posit their eggs and rear their young. The cowbird, how- 

 ever, never constructs a nest, but deposits its eggs in the 

 homes of other birds, and thus imposes upon them the 

 care of hatching its eggs and rearing its young. This un- 

 usual lack of parental instinct, and the fact that the cow- 

 bird commonly imposes upon birds of smaller size than it- 

 self, chiefly valuable insectivorous and song birds, thus 

 aiding in the restriction of such birds, have fastened on 

 this pariah of bird-life an unenviable reputation. It is, in- 

 deed, a peculiar bird, having no attractiveness of color, no 

 beauty of voice, and no home. No wonder that, when in 

 the haunts of other species, it hides and skulks as it seeks 

 a suitable and convenient habitation to house its unborn 

 orphan ! 



Like our other representatives of the family Icteridce, the 

 cowbirds are migratory in this latitude, though they are 

 resident in the southern portion of the State, with the 

 bronzed grackles and others of their congeners. They 

 commonly arrive in this locality about the middle of 



