BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 273 



in autumn until into December, but far more frequently until 

 the month of November, yet in either case in very limited 

 numbers. 



It is more commonly found first after its appearance in spring, 

 along the streams, in small flocks, perched for half an hour at 

 a time or more, in the tops of scattering, leafless trees. These 

 little parties are doubtless the advance pioneers of the species, 

 on their way to still higher latitudes that move on shortly, 

 leaving the locality for others alike migrating, until the rear 

 comes to occupy the territory left them by some unwritten law 

 yet to be learned by curious mortals. These parties are not 

 unfrequently mixed somewhat with Red-wing Blackbirds. 

 When those which are to remain during the summer have 

 come, they at once begin to associate with the herds of cattle 

 grazing the fields and commons. Very soon afterwards their 

 numbers increase preceptibly as the herds increase. I have 

 often noticed them scattered in small parties through an immense 

 herd, tripping sprily about their feet, and under their bellies, 

 feeding industriously upon some forms of food evidently asso- 

 ciated with the presence of the cattle. It seemed as if the life 

 and limbs of each individual were momentarily jeoparized by 

 the countless feet of the herd, yet in no instance did I ever 

 know of either life or limb suffering by the proximity. After- 

 wards during the warmest days of summer, these remarkable 

 birds may be seen often, perched along the backs of the cattle 

 while feeding, and when lying down chewing their cuds, em- 

 blems of contentment and repose. At such times I have re- 

 peatedly witnessed the approach of the bird, when it would 

 hop from the ground onto the head of the animal, walk un- 

 hesitatingly down along the face and pick in the angles of the 

 eyes for some time, evidently to the entire satisfaction of the 

 animal thus relieved of the annoying flies and midgets abound- 

 ing there. 



About the time that the birds generally begin to lay their 

 first eggs, the females of this species are noticed to become 

 moody, and to separate themselves from the flocks. Flying 

 about solitarily from thicket to thicket, and tree to tree, they 

 are found to be in the urgent necessities of finding a place in 

 which to deposit their matured eggs. Building no nests of 

 their own, of the instinct for doing which for some reason they 

 are deprived, they drop the imminent egg in the nest of some 

 one of the other species of birds, more commonly perhaps, 

 that of warblers and sparrows, or the vireos, but scarcely less 



