Hy THE COWBIRD. 
Cowbird in the lightest juvenile phase of plumage, a waif cuckold far 
from any of his kin, but shifting for himself with the nonchalance which 
characterizes his worthless kind. 
If our hero had lived (and I make no apology for his demise in the first 
act), he would have exchanged his inconspicuous livery for the rich, iridescent 
black of the adult; and he would have done this on the installment plan, by 
chunks and blotches, looking the while like a ragpicker, tricked out in cast-off 
finery. 
In the month of March Cowbirds mingle more or less with other 
blackbirds in the migrations, but if the main flock halts for refreshments 
and discussion en route, a group of these rowdies will hunt up some dis- 
reputable female of their own kind, and make tipsy and insulting advances 
to her along some horizontal limb or fence rail. Taking a position about 
a foot away from the coy drab, the male will make two or three accelerating 
hops toward her, then stop suddenly, allowing the impulse of motion to tilt 
him violently forward and throw his tail up perpendicularly, while at the 
same moment he spews out the disgusting notes which voice his passion. 
Of the mating, Chapman says: ‘‘They build no nest, and the females, 
lacking every moral instinct, leave their companions only long enough to 
deposit their eggs in the nests of other and smaller birds. I can imagine 
no sight more strongly suggestive of a thoroly despicable nature than a 
female Cowbird sneaking thru the trees and bushes in search of a victim 
upon whom to shift the duties of motherhood.” 
The egg, thus surreptitiously placed in another bird’s nest, usually 
hatches two or three days before those of the foster mother, and the infant 
Cowbird thus gains an advantage which he is not slow to improve. His 
loud clamoring for food often drives the old birds to abandon the task of 
incubation; or if the other eggs are allowed to remain until hatched, the 
uncouth stranger manages to usurp attention and food supplies, and not 
infrequently to override or stifle the other occupants of the nest, so that their 
dead bodies are by-and-by removed to make room for his hogship. It is 
asserted by some that in the absence of the foster parents the young thug 
forcibly ejects the rightful heirs from the nest, after the fashion of the 
Old World Cuckoos. I once found a nest which contained only a lusty 
Cowbird, while three proper fledgelings clung to the shrubbery below, and 
one lay dead upon the ground. 
When the misplaced tenderness of foster parents has done its utmost 
for the young upstart, he joins himself to some precious crew of his own 
blood, and the cycle of a changeling is complete. 
While not common anywhere west of the Rockies, the Cowbird is no 
longer rare east of the Cascades, and it is making its appearance at various 
points on Puget Sound. The earlier writers make no mention of its occur- 
