210 SIGNS AND SEASONS 



young, I know not. The male sparrow had cheered 

 me many a day with his song, and I blamed myself 

 for not having rushed at once to the rescue, when 

 the arch enemy was upon him. There is probably 

 little truth in the popular notion that snakes charm 

 birds. The black snake is the most subtle, alert, 

 and devilish of our snakes, and I have never seen 

 him have any but young, helpless birds in his 

 mouth. 



We have one parasitical bird, the cowbird, so 

 called because it walks about amid the grazing cattle 

 and seizes the insects which their heavy tread sets 

 going, which is an enemy of most of the smaller 

 birds. It drops its egg in the nest of the song 

 sparrow, the social sparrow, the snowbird, the 

 vireos, and the wood-warblers, and as a rule it is 

 the only egg in the nest that issues successfully. 

 Either the eggs of the rightful owner of the nest 

 are not hatched, or else the young are overridden 

 and overreached by the parasite, and perish prema- 

 turely. 



Among the worst enemies of our birds are the 

 so-called "collectors," men who plunder nests and 

 murder their owners in the name of science. Not 

 the genuine ornithologist, for no one is more careful 

 of squandering bird life than he; but the sham 

 ornithologist, the man whose vanity or affectation 

 happens to take an ornithological turn. He is 

 seized with an itching for a collection of eggs and 

 birds because it happens to be the fashion, or be- 

 cause it gives him the air of a man of science. But 



