I.-, 



warblers thai I . I in tin- 1'n.viiir.-. Alter the egg of 1 1" ' 'u bird is d- : 

 the female take- ii> further interest in the matter, but le;i\.-s it to IK- h;it. 

 the real owner >r the nest in which it 1ms been placed ; in due time lh- 

 will appear and then the iron >. lnat'.\\ he young Cow hi 



far outgrown it-- fellow nest lings, in n^l h a in I \ nmcit y . ~ that it r 



ami manage- to get all the food tin- parent birds bring to the iK'-t.tl 



being that the proper occupants of the neV are either starved to death an 



out by the interloper, who from that time until it is full grown taxes to ' 

 utmost all the energies of its foster pan i/ 



Nothing can be more pitiable than the plight of a pair of -mall hinK upon \\-\ 

 one of these parasites has heen foisted. Tliey are forced to nifle U u_d\ found 

 instead of their own you ng. and then by reason of the long continued help 

 of their foster child, they are prevented from raising a second brood: for although 

 it 1 1) ickly grows large and strong enough to crowd out its fellow ]i> and 



its body develops rapidly, so that it can leave the nest and follow it 

 parents through the trees, yet its energy does not develop proportionately with 

 its body, and it requires to be fed for a longer period than the \ ounir '<f an 

 small bird. The destruction of the natural enemies of this bird, and the , 

 stantly enlarging area of cultivated land, both operate favorably for the increase 

 of this pest, so that of late years it has become altogether too abundant, Last 

 year (1897) in the southern part of Ontario it swarmed every where, and I not! 

 an t'u'g of this bird's in quite half the nes^s of other small species that I chai 

 to find; of course, in every case I took it out and promptly smashed it. th. r 

 saving the proper brood. It is to the increase of these creatures that I attrii 

 almost wholly the decrease which has become so noticeable in our inoi, useful 

 species. Some idea may be obtained of the terrible destruction worked among 

 the valuable species by Cow birds by just noticing the immense flocks of tl 

 that occur here in the autumn, and remembering that for every one of those Cow 

 birds, a brood of some other species has perished. Most of our inaecti voroiw 

 birds produce an average of about four young to a brood, and some of them 

 would raise two broods in a season ; the deposit of an egg by the Cow bird in a 

 nest prevents the raising of any young at all of its own by the bird victimized. 

 Just how many eggs each Cow bird lays each season is rather unceitain ; in all 

 probability four or five are deposited. If that is so, every female Cow bird that 

 arrives here in the spring and is allowed to follow her own method of reproduc- 

 tion, causes the loss of from fifteen to twenty-five of the young of our i 

 valuable birds. In view of the great increase that has taken place in the num- 

 bers of this bird of late years, it is not to be wondered at that our other nativ.- 

 species are decreasing, and we should take steps at once to regulate matt 

 Every person on finding a nest of any of our small birds should look over the 

 eggs contained in it, and if one is found therein differing from the others and 

 corresponding to the description of the egg of the Cow bird which I have aln 

 given, that egg should be taken out and destroyed. School teachers throughout 

 the country would do well to impress this upon their pupils. 



Shooting the females in early spring is perhaps the most satisfactory way of 

 keeping down the number of this most undesirable bird, and I stron-ly urge 

 everyone who has access to a gun to use it for this purpose, about his own prem- 

 ises ; for, as I have already pointed out, every Cow bird killed at th : - 

 means the salvation of much valuable bird life and a corresponding ' 

 our insect p-ct-. 



Jinhul 'ml,-. ; ," ( )ne of the most familial- sounds of summer in the counti 

 merry rollicking song of the Bobolink, to be heard at all limes in t : 

 scent-laden clover ; its bubbling note-, poured out in the exuberance - 



