8o BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



Molothrus may be added another of equal or even 

 greater importance* It is never engaged with the 

 dilatory and exhaustive process of rearing its own 

 young ; and for this reason continues in better con- 

 dition than other species, and moreover, being 

 gregarious and practising promiscuous sexual inter- 

 course, must lay a much greater number of eggs than 

 other species. In our domestic fowls we see that 

 hens that never become broody lay a great deal more 

 than others. Some of our small birds rear two, others 

 only one brood in a season building, incubation, 

 and tending the young taking up much time, so that 

 they are usually from two to three months and a 

 half employed. But the Cow-bird is like the fowl 

 that never incubates, and continues dropping eggs 

 during four months and a half. From the beginning 

 of September until the end of January the males 

 are seen incessantly wooing the females, and during 

 most of this time eggs are found, I find that small 

 birds will, if deprived repeatedly of their nests, lay 

 and even hatch four times in the season, thus laying, 

 if the full complement be four, sixteen eggs. No 

 doubt the Cow-bird lays a much larger number than 

 that ; my belief is that every female lays from sixty 

 to a hundred eggs every season, though I have 

 nothing but the extraordinary number of wasted 

 eggs one finds to judge from. 



Before dismissing the subject of the advantages 

 the Molothrus possesses over its dupes, and of the 

 real or apparent defects of its instinct, some attention 

 should be given to another circumstance, vis;,, the 



