246 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



HI. MOLOTHRUS 



(A) PECORIS. Cow-bird. Cow Blackbird. Cow Bunting. 

 Cow-pen Bunting, etc. 



(A common summer-resident of New England, and notorious 

 for the practice of laying eggs in the nests of other birds.) 



Fig. 12. Cow-bird (). 



(a) . About 7 inches long. $ , iridescent black ; head of 

 a warm silky brown. 9 , smaller, entirely brown ; beneath, 

 paler (and often streaky?). 



(b). The eggs average *90X*65 of an inch, though greatly 

 varying in size, and are white, thickly sprinkled, or finely 

 blotched, with brown and generally faint lilac. 



(c). The Cow-birds, like the Cuckoos of Europe, 85 present 

 a most interesting phenomenon in nature, for, instead of pro- 

 viding for their young, they deposit their eggs in the nests of 

 other birds. They are also, unlike all our other birds, polyg- 

 amous, being equally without conjugal and parental affection. 

 I shall here follow their history from the earliest period of 

 their life, when they are left to the mercies or care of their 

 foster-parents, among whom I ma} 7 enumerate from my own 

 observations, the Blue Birds, Golden-crowned "Thrushes," 

 Maryland "Yellow-throats," Black and White "Creepers," 

 Summer Yellow Birds, several other warblers, Red-eyed and 

 White-eyed Vireos, " Chippers," several other sparrows, and 



85 Our cuckoos, who build their own nests, have been called "Cow-birds" from 

 their notes. 



