130 



FLOCKING ALREADY! 



When the rich abundance of summer vegetation 

 prompts a reposeful wish for the perpetuation of the 

 season, a flock of Blackbirds hurrying across the open 

 sky between the rounded oak tops give a hasty 

 reminder of the universal law of change. They are 

 flocking already, and the summer seems to have 

 scarcely yet arrived. Their diminutive and dis- 

 reputi.ble cousins, the Cowbirds, have been flocking 

 all the year. They shirk the responsibilities of life and 

 shift the care of their offspring to others. Through- 

 out the spring, when other birds are building nests 

 and perfecting their domestic establishments with 

 ( ardent, happy industry, these little outlaws are 

 \ congregating in flocks and loitering idly about the 

 i pastures. Now and then a solitary female will skulk 

 away from the flock to deposit an egg in the nest of a 

 Sparrow, Finch, or Warbler, returning again to the 

 vagabondia of her kind. This flocking merely betokens 

 parasitic idleness, but the flocking of the large 

 Blackbirds, early and unwelcome as usual, tells of 

 the passing of another season of growth. Unlike their 

 little cousins, they are models of domestic virtue. 

 As soon as they arrive they proceed at once with the 



