A DEAD BEAT. 1 



i 



THE COW-BIRD. 



THE habit of laying its eggs in other birds' nests, which 

 we remarked had been a few times observed in our American 

 cuckoos, and which is the regular habit of the European 

 cuckoo, has a name of its own. It is called parasitism. 



Parasite is an old Greek name for one who eats at another 

 man's expense. Nowadays we call such a person a dead beat. 

 Any animal that does not work for its own living, or that 

 expects, some other animal to bring up its young, is called 

 a parasitic animal. Our cuckoos are only occasionally para- 

 sitic, and then without doing any harm; but we have another 

 group of birds that are dead beats of the lowest class. 



Little can be said in favor of our common cow-bird. 2 Not 

 only does he shirk the labor of building a nest, and of caring 

 for his young, but the youngsters themselves are worthless 

 fellows, and they always cause the death of all the young 

 in the nest of their foster parents. So every cow-bird that 

 you see is responsible for the death of four or five useful and 

 pretty insectivorous birds, while he himself is good for nothing 

 except eating a few bugs and a little weed-seed. The cow- 

 bird is not only useless and morally disreputable, but he is 

 actually criminal. 



1 The facts concerning cow-birds are principally drawn from Major C. E. 

 Bendire's "Life Histories of North American Birds"; the theory, except 

 the comparison with cuckoos, from Sclater and Hudson's work on the " Birds 

 of the Argentine Republic." 



2 The cuckoo is often called cow-bird, too, from its note ; but the true cow- 

 bird is the cow-blackbird, shiny-eye, clodhopper, lazy bird, or buffalo bird of 

 different localities. 



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