LII 



COWBIBD ; Cow BLACKBIRD ; LAZY-BIKD ; VAGABOND ; TRAMP 

 495. Molothrus; ater ater 



Most birds possess some trait that appeals to our 

 admiration, love or sympathy; they are either beautiful, 

 sweet singers, or useful adjuncts to our pest-destroyers, 

 or they are edible. In the Cowbird we have a freak, in 

 so far as its personality is concerned. Unfortunately, 

 it does not possess a single quality that appeals to any 

 of our better emotions. With its mongrel coloring of 

 dull black and rusty brown, its unmusical, noisy attempt 

 at singing, its lazy method of obtaining food, its polyga- 

 mous ideas and its utter abandonment of all parental re- 

 sponsibility, it is placed beyond the pale of human sen- 

 timent, and in the list of the outcasts of the bird kingdom. 



The company of the Cowbird is avoided by all birds 

 save the English Sparrows and Eed-winged Blackbirds, 

 which, in the fall of the year, are often seen mingling 

 with the outcasts in small flocks. 



Because of the fact that Cowbirds lay their eggs in 

 the nests of other birds there is no way of estimating 

 the number laid in any season. The eggs are dull white, 

 sprinkled with small amber blotches. 



The Cowbird is an omnivorous eater and is equally 

 fond of seeds, berries and insects ; it is just as broad in 

 its social habits as it is firm in the belief of Mormonism 

 and the practice of polygamy, and, void of parental in- 

 stinct, it refuses to build a nest for its own use, or to as- 

 sume any responsibility in the incubation of eggs and 

 providing for the young, leaving all family pleasures, 

 cares and responsibilities to some small bird in whose 

 nest the Cowbird 's egg is deposited and abandoned to the 

 protection of the foster-parents. 



The intruder's egg, being larger than those of the 

 small bird, receives more warmth from the body of the 

 incubating bird than the other eggs receive, and is 

 hatched first. Then, being rapid in development, it 



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