The Cow-Birds never mate. 243 



States; Molothriis ater, molothrus ater obscurus, and 

 Callothrus rohistiis, and a fourth, Callothrus ceneiis, is 

 a resident of Western Mexico and portions of Central 

 America. The remaining species are confined to 

 Central America. " It is probable," he writes, " that 

 nearly all these species are parasitic to a greater or 

 less degree, laying their eggs in the nests of other 

 birds, and letting them perform the duties of incuba- 

 tion and rearing the young, with the exception of 

 Molothrus badiiis, the bay- winged cow-bird (of the 

 Argentine, Paraguay and Bolivia), which occasionally 

 builds a nest of its own or appropriates nests of other 

 species, but incubates its own eggs or cares for its 

 young like other respectable members of the Avian 

 family." Our cow-birds are among the few, if they 

 are not the only, birds which practise polyandry, 

 which is probably caused for the reason that the males 

 generally outnumber the females by about 3 to i. 

 (Major Bendire in view of our Canorus, etc., should 

 have deleted the clause, "if they are not the only 

 birds.")" 



Dr. Elliott Coues tells us " The cow-birds never 

 mate ; their most intimate relations are no sooner 

 effected than forgotten ; not even the decent restric- 

 tions of a seraglio are observed : it is a perfect com- 

 munity of free-lovers, who do as the original cynics 

 did. The necessary courtship becomes in consequence 

 a curiously mixed affair. During the period corres- 

 ponding to the mating season of orderly birds, the 

 patriarchs of the sorry crew mount the trees and 

 fences, and posture and turn about and ruffle their 

 feathers to look bigger than nature made them .... 



* Pp. 589-590. 



