A Feathered Parasite 81 



number of eggs, often dropping them on the ground, 

 laying them in abandoned nests, or depositing them in 

 nests in which incubation has already begun, in which 

 case all of them are lost. However, in spite of this 

 wastefulness the birds thrive, thousands of them being 

 seen in flocks during the season of migration. 



And, by the way, a description of their habits by 

 Mr. Hudson has thrown interesting light on the subject 

 of migration in the southern hemisphere. South of the 

 equator the recurrence of the seasons is the exact reverse 

 of their recurrence north of the equator, and therefore 

 the breeding season of the birds is in the autumn instead 

 of the spring* the flight from winter cold occurs in the 

 spring instead of in the autumn, and is toward the north 

 instead of toward the south. Thus, in February and 

 March the Argentine cowbirds are seen flying in vast 

 battalions in the direction of the equatorial regions 

 that is, northward in whose salubrious clime they spend 

 the winter. As our northern autumn draws near and 

 the southern spring approaches these winged migrants 

 take the air line for their breeding, haunts in the 

 Argentine Republic and Patagonia. At the same time 

 the migrants of the northern hemisphere are pressing 

 southward before the blustering north wind. It all 

 seems wonderful and solemn, this world- wide processional 

 of the seasons and the birds. 



Naturally one would expect to find some other eccen- 

 tricities in this aberrant family besides that of parasitism, 

 and in this expectation one is not disappointed. There 



