ICTERID.E — THE ORIOLES. ]57 



Mr. Xuttall states that if a Cow lilat-khird's egg is ile])()site(l in a nest alone 

 it is unifoiiiily forsaken, and lie als<j enumerates the Sunnner YeHow bird as 

 one of tlie nurses of tlie Cowbird. In both respects I tliink lie is mistaken. 

 So far from forsaking her nest when one of these eggs is deposited, the Iled- 

 eyed Vireo has been known to commence incubation without having laid 

 any of her own eggs, and also to forsake her nest when the intrusive egg 

 has been taken and her own left. The I). a:stira, I think, invaiiably covers 

 up and destroys the Cowbird's eggs when deposited before her own, and even 

 when deposited afterwards. 



The Cow ]>lackbird has no attractions as a singer, and has nothing that 

 deserves the name of song. His utterances are harsh and unmelodious. 



In September they begin to collect in large ilocks, in localities favorable 

 for their sustenance. The Fresh Pond marshes in Cambridge were once 

 one of their chosen places of .^sort, in which they seemed to collect late in 

 September, as if coming from great distances. There they remained until 

 late in October, when they passed southward. 



Mr. llidgway only met with this species in two places, the valley of the 

 Humboldt in September, and in June in the Truckee Valley. Their eggs 

 were also obtained in the AVahsatch Mountains, deposited in the nest of 7V.s- 

 serel/a schistacea, and in Bear liiver Valley in the nest of (riot hi up is trickn^i. 



IVIr. Boardman informs me that the Cow lUackliird is a verv rare bird in 

 the neighborhood of Calais, Me., so nmch so that he does not see one of 

 these birds once in live years, even as a bird of passage. 



The eggs of this species are of a rounded oval, though scniie are more 

 oblong than others, and are nearly e(|ually rounded at either end. They 

 vary from .<Sr) of an inch to an inch in length, and froui .(3.") to .70 in breadth. 

 Their ground-color is white. In some it is so thickly covered with fine dot- 

 tings of ashy and purplish-lirown that the ground is not distinguishable. P 

 others the egg is blotched with bold dashes of purple and wine-<^olo^ . 

 brown. 



On the Rio Grande the e<i'gs of the smaller southern race wer^ .act in 

 the nests of Virco hc/ii, and in each of the nests of the Virco " lua found 

 near Camp Grant, Arizona, there was an egg of this specie^ At Cape St. 

 Lucas, Mr. Xantus found their eggs in nests of the J^o^ ^>tila mtlauura. 

 We have no information in regard to their h.abits, and an only infer that 

 they must be substantially the .«ame as those of the nnrt u m birds. 



The eggs of the var. oh.'infvu'i exhibit a very marked \aiiution in size from 

 those of the var. pecori.^, and have a different ap])earaiice, though their colors 

 are nearly identical. Their ground-color is white, and their markings a 

 claret-brown. These markings are fewer, smaller, and le.ss generally dis- 

 tributed, and the ground-color is much more apparent. They measure 

 .60 by .bh of an inch, and their capacity as comi>ared with the eggs of the 

 2)ecoris is as 33 to 70, — a variation tliat is constant, and jipparently too large 

 to be accounted for on climatic ditlerences. 



