150 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



the parasite had deposited its Qgg before the rightful 

 owner had taken final possession, and which the outraged 

 sparrows had deserted, not caring to use the home which 

 they had constructed with such hopeful anticipations. 

 Most birds spend a few days in visiting their companions 

 and in dallying about the neighborhood after completing 

 their home, before they begin their regular occupancy of 

 the premises. The skulking cowbird, anxious to find 

 suitable foster parents for its offspring, makes the most 

 of its opportunities to deposit its eggs before the selected 

 parents move into their new domicile. This action of 

 the cowbird leads many birds to forsake the home they 

 have prepared, and the cowbird by its precipitancy thus 

 destroys the chances of safe issue of its offspring. I have 

 frequently removed the egg of the parasite from a nest of 

 the sparrow which contained less than a full complement 

 of eggs of the owner, but the sparrows seldom seemed to 

 regard the act as a favor, and frequently deserted the 

 premises as though the removal of the egg had been an 

 outrage. I have concluded that the cowbird is perhaps 

 as useful as the sparrow, and since the sparrows are 

 abundant, rearing several broods every season, and take 

 apparent delight in brooding the eggs in their nest, it is 

 perhaps as well to leave the eggs as we find them. 



The late summer habits of the field sparrows coincide 

 with their deportment in the earlier season, though they 

 resort less to the bushes, and seek quarters more fre- 

 quently in weedy patches where seeds afford them agree- 

 able sustenance. In the fall they can be found in clumps 

 of ragweeds, and when disturbed they fly out into the 

 hedges with undulating, jerky flight peculiar to the spar- 

 rows. When they are migrating, usually in the last weeks 

 of October and in early November, they are found alto- 

 gether in weedy lots and along hedges, associating with 

 others of their kind. Their songs are rarely heard on the 

 migrations, and they act in all respects as though their 

 spirits were depressed by the change from the bright and 

 pleasant scenes of the vanished summer. 



i 



