100 COWBIBD 



and the young grow so rapidly and to such size 

 that they either smother or crowd out the smaller 

 birds. Major Bendire exclaims indignantly : " A 

 brood of insectivorous and useful birds is almost 

 invariably sacrificed for every Cowbird raised." 

 Mr. Ridgway, in his interesting book on the birds 

 of Illinois, gives a vivid picture of the female 

 Cowbird when she is searching for a nest in which 

 to deposit her egg. " She hunts stealthily through 

 the woods," he says, " usually among the under- 

 growth, and when a nest is discovered, patiently 

 awaits from a convenient hiding-place the tem- 

 porary absence of the parent, when the nest is 

 stealthily and hastily inspected, and if found 

 suitable she takes possession and deposits her 

 egg, when she departs as quietly as she came." 

 Some of the foster parents abandon their nests, 

 or build a second nest over the eggs, but usually 

 the milk of human kindness conquers, and the 

 little bird does her best to bring up the foundling. 

 In the village of Farmington, Connecticut, we 

 once saw a Song Sparrow on a lawn feeding a Cow- 

 bird bigger than she. When she handed it a worm, 

 one of my field class exclaimed in astonishment, 

 " I thought the big bird was the mother." And 

 well she might, for when the fat nestling towered 

 above its foster parent, insistently shaking its 

 wings, the poor, hard-worked little Sparrow, with 

 her own wings tight at her sides and a general 

 harried air of hurry, looked thinner and smaller 



