CLASS AYES: ORDER PASSERES. 



121 



Fig. 200. 



The Cow-'bird is gregarious and polygamous, exhibiting 

 neither conjugal nor parental affection. The female lays in 

 the nests of other birds, Fig m 



usually those of similar 

 appetite, and whose eggs 

 hatch two days later. 

 The adopted nestling 

 being larger, obtains the 

 greater share of food, 

 and its foster compan- 

 ions are generally soon 

 stifled or starved.* 



The Baltimore Oriole, Volothrus pecoris, Cow-bird. 



noticeable for its brilliant plumage, almost invariably reaches 

 the latitude of Southern New England on the 10th of May. 



Its rich and full- toned 

 melody defies verbal 

 equivalents.! Though 

 pernicious by injuring 

 the pea-crop, it more 

 than compensates by 

 destroying the canker- 

 worm and the tent- 

 caterpillar, which few 



*f ^Hi birds venture to dis- 



N\ turb> The oriole's nest 



Icterus baltimore, Golden Robin. $. is composed of Vege- 

 table fibres, hair, etc., woven into a kind of purse hung from 

 the end of a limb.]; . 



at length get into an exact concert ; but, when the listener is just beginning to be 

 enraptured, the music ceases as suddenly as if an organ-bellows had burst 



* Their dead bodies are probably removed by their parents, as they are never 

 found near the nest, which would be the case, if, like the cuckoo of Europe, they were 

 thrown out by the young cow-bird. 



t Nuttall describes the notes of its song thus : Tshippe-tshayia-too-too-tshippe- 

 the-tshippe-too-too. The failure will be apparent to all who compare it with the 

 original. 



$ In the museum of Brown University is a nest originally sustained by threads 

 fastened around two twigs forming a fork. One of the twigs breaking off three days 

 before the young were ready to fly, the old bird procured a piece of twine at least 



