COW-BIRD 177 



so that the whole air seemed laden with the strong 

 musky smell of their plumage. In the autumn I 

 have often watched their migration, usually in flocks 

 of fifty to a hundred birds; and these would continue 

 passing for hours, flying at a height of twenty or 

 thirty feet, and invariably, on coming to water, drop- 

 ping down and sweeping low over the surface as if 

 wanting to alight and refresh themselves, but unable 

 to overcome the impulse urging them to the north, 

 they would rise again and travel on. 



Then there were the species that had only a partial 

 migration; birds that were residents all the year 

 with us, but were migrants from the colder country 

 to the south. One was our common dove (Zenaida), 

 seen passing in flocks of many thousands; and, 

 among the small birds, the common parasitical cow- 

 bird. The entire plumage of this species is a deep 

 glossy purple which looks black at a little distance, 

 and in late autumn, when great flocks visited our 

 plantation, the large bare trees would sometimes 

 look as if they had suddenly put on an inky-black 

 foliage. This bird too, when migrating from the 

 southern pampas and Patagonia, would appear and 

 pass in an endless series of flocks, travelling low and 

 filling the air with the musical murmur of their wings 

 and the musky smell which they too, like the ibis, 

 give out from their plumage. 



But of the smaller birds with a limited or partial 

 migration, the military starling on his travels im- 

 pressed and delighted me the most. Like a starling 

 in shape, but larger than that bird, it has a dark 



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