A FEATHERED PARASITE. 827 



his feathered companions to feed him; but in a few weeks he grew 

 so wild and manifested such a fierce desire for the outdoor world 

 that I was glad to carry him out to the woods and give him his free- 

 dom. A young red-winged blackbird and a pair of meadow larks 

 developed a different disposition. 



The dwarf cowbird (Molothrus ater obscurus) is similar to his 

 relative just described, except that he is smaller and his geograph- 

 ical range is more restricted. He is a resident of Mexico, southern 

 Texas, southwestern Arizona, and southern California. His habits 

 resemble those of the common cowbird. Another bunting, having 

 almost the same range, although a little more southerly, is the red- 

 eyed cowbird, which is larger and darker than our common cow- 

 bird and has the same parasitical habits. 



In South America three species have been studied by Mr. W. H. 

 Hudson, who, in collaboration with Mr. P. L. Sclater, has published 

 a most valuable work on Argentine ornithology. One of these is 

 called the Argentine cowbird (MolotJirus bonariensis). It is a lona 

 fide, blue-blooded parasite, and has been seen striking its beak into 

 the eggs of other birds and flying away with them. The males, it 

 is said, show little discrimination in pecking the eggs, for they are 

 just as likely to puncture the cowbird eggs as those of other birds. 

 Every egg in a nest is frequently perforated in this way. These 

 buntings lay a large 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 cases all of them are 

 lost. However, in spite of this wastefulness the birds thrive, thou- 

 sands 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 an 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 in- 

 stead 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 

 summer 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 mien of old Boreas. It all seems 

 wonderful and solemn, this world-wide processional of the seasons 

 and the birds. 



