, THE COWBIIU). 4P,5 



latter part of May, 1804, along- the line of tlie Canadian Pacific Railwa}^, small 

 parties of from six to twelve being almost constantly in sight, evidentlv on their 

 way to their breedino- o-rounds. 



The most northern point where its eggs have been taken ai)pears to Ije in 

 the vicinity of Little Slave Lake, in southern Athabasca, in latitude 55° 30' N. 

 Mr. S. Jones, of the Hudson Bay Company, forwarded specimens from there to 

 the Smithsonian Institution in 18fiS, but it is quite probable that this species 

 rang'es farthei- north. 



Although I have traveled extensively over our westernmost States and Ter- 

 ritories, I noticed the Cowbird on but very few occasions, and only found its eggs 

 there twice; once on June 21, 1871, near Fort Lapwai, Idaho, in the nest of the 

 Long-tailed Chat, Icteria vircns Jont/icanda, and again near Palouse Falls, in 

 southeastern Washington, on June 18, 1878, in a nest of the Slate-colored ^iniv- 

 Yow, PassereUa iliaca scMstacea. This I believe is the most western breedin<>' 

 record known. 



Both of these s})ecimens are now in tlie United States National Museum 

 collection. 



The most southern breeding records I have knowledge of are from Wayne 

 and Mcintosh counties, Georgia; Petite Ansa Island, Louisiana, and Harris 

 County, Texas. It does not appear to breed anywhere in the immediate vicinity 

 of the Gulf coast in Texas, where it is replaced In- its suialler relative, the Dwarf 

 Cowbird. While the majority of these birds pass beyond our borders in the late 

 fall and winter, mainly to southern Mexico, still a good many remain in our 

 Southern States, and a few even winter occasionally as far nortli as New Eno-- 

 land, Michigan, etc. * 



Dr. G. Brown Goode tells me that wdiile on the German Lloyd steamer 

 Necl-ar, in April, 1880, a Cowbird Hew on board, full}- 1,000 miles east of New- 

 foundland, and was captured. 



The Cowbird ordinarily arrives in good-sized flocks in the Middle States, 

 from its winter home in the South, during the last half of March; in the more 

 northern States, rarely before the first week in April, and more frequently after 

 the middle of this month, the males predominating in nuuibers over the more 

 plainly colored females, and generalh' precede them several days. Soon after, 

 these flocks commence to break up and scatter in small companies of from six to 

 twelve individuals and disperse generally over the country. It prefers more or 

 less cultivated districts, river valleys, etc., wjiere other birds are abundant, and 

 rarely penetrates far into heavily timbered sections or mountainous regions, 

 excepting in Colorado, where it has been met with at altitudes up to 8,000 feet. 



The food of the Cowbird consists principally of vegetable matter, such as 

 seeds of difterent kinds of noxious weeds, like ragweed, smartweed, foxtail or 

 pigeon grass, wild rice and the smaller species of grains, berries of different 

 kinds, as well as of grasshoppers, beetles, ticks, flies, and other insects, worms, etc. 

 Taking its food alone into consideration it does perhaps more good than liarm. 



While the Cowbird is fairly connnon in most of the States east of the 

 Mississippi River, it is far more noticeable in the regions west of this stream. 



