340 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



Tliis common and well-known bird is abundantly dis- 

 tributed throughout New England as a summer visi- 

 tor. It makes its first appearance about the middle of 

 March in Massachusetts, and, instead of mating and sep- 

 arating into pairs, remains in small flocks through the 

 summer. 



At all times, the males and females congregate together 

 and visit the fields and pastures, (where they destroy num- 

 bers of insects, principally Orthoptera), and are usually in 

 greatest numbers where droves of cattle are assembled. 

 The male, in spring and early summer, has a guttural song, 

 which he utters from a tall tree, sometimes an hour at a 

 time. This song resembles the syllables ^cluk 'seee. When 

 he emits this note, he bristles out the feathers of his neck, 

 and spreads his tail, and seems to swell out his body with 

 the effort to produce an agreeable tone. 



When the desire for laying is awakened in the female, 

 instead of building a nest of her own, she seeks the tene- 

 ment of some other bird, usually a smaller species than 

 herself; and, watching an opportunity when the other bird 

 has left it, she drops an egg in it, and leaves it to the tender 

 mercies of the owner of the nest. The birds most often 

 chosen for this purpose are the Vireos, Warblers, and Spar- 

 rows : sometimes the Small Thrushes are thus imposed upon, 

 and rarely the Wrens. 



Some birds build over the stranger egg a new nest. I 

 have in my collection a nest of the Yellow Warbler thus 

 doubled, and another of the Goldfinch. Sometimes the 

 nest is abandoned, particularly if the owner has no eggs of 

 her own ; but usually the intruding egg is hatched, and the 

 young bird attended with all the care given to the legitimate 

 young. The eggs of this species are of a grayish-white, 

 with fine spots of brown over the entire surface. Their 

 dimensions vary from .96 by .70 to .80 by .62 inch : some 

 specimens are marked with very minute reddish dots, which 

 are scattered over the entire surface ; others have bold 



