220 VERTEBRATES: BIRDS. 



in immense flocks around grain-fields. At length they 

 move southward, lingering by the margins of creeks and 

 rivers, where the tops of the reeds are bent with the ripe 

 seeds. Here the Reed-birds become extremely fat, and 

 thousands are shot by the hunters, and sold in the mar- 

 kets. 



The Genus Molothrus is represented in North America 

 by the Cow-bird, M. pecoris, Sw., which is eight inches 

 long, the wing less than four and a half inches ; the 

 head, neck, and anterior half of the breast light choco- 

 late-brown ; the rest of the body lustrous black. The 

 female is light olivaceous-brown. In spring and summer 

 this bird lingers around the cattle in the pastures. Like 

 the European Cuckoo it makes no nest ; but stealthily 

 lays its eggs, only one in a place, in the nests of other 

 birds ; especially in those of the Maryland Yellow-throat, 

 several Flycatchers, the Blue-bird, Chipping Sparrow, and 

 Golden-crowned Thrush. The egg is pale grayish-blue, 

 sprinkled with umber-brown dots and short streaks ; and 

 it is a remarkable fact, that it hatches before the eggs 

 of the bird in whose nest it is laid. No sooner has the 

 young Cow-bird hatched, than the foster-parents fly off 

 to obtain food for it, and hence their own eggs perish, 

 and are at length thrown from the nest. The young bird 

 is cared for with all tenderness, and fed even long after it 

 has begun to fly about, and after it has become larger 

 than the foster-parents themselves. 



The Genus Agelaius has the first quill shorter than the 

 second and third, and the outer claw scarcely reaching to 

 the base of the middle one. 



The Red-winged Blackbird, A. phceniceus, Vieill., of 

 North America, is nine and a half inches long, the wing 

 five inches, the general color lustrous black, the shoulders 

 and lesser wing-coverts bright crimson or vermilion. The 

 female is brown above, the feathers edged or streaked 



