BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. Tie 
in autumn until into December, but far more frequently until 
the month of November, yet in either case in very limited 
numbers. 
It is more commonly found first after its appearance in spring, 
along the streams, in small flocks, perched for half an hour at 
a time or more, in the tops of scattering, leafless trees. These 
little parties are doubtless the advance pioneers of the species, 
on their way to still higher latitudes that move on shortly, 
leaving the locality for others alike migrating’, until the rear 
comes to occupy the territory left them by some unwritten law — 
yet tobe learned by curious mortals. These parties are not 
unfrequently mixed somewhat with Red-wing Blackbirds. 
When those which are to remain during the summer have 
come, they at once begin to associate with the herds of cattle 
grazing the fields and commons. Very soon afterwards their 
numbers increase preceptibly as the herds increase. I have 
often noticed them scattered insmall parties through animmense 
herd, tripping sprily about their feet, and under their bellies, 
feeding industriously upon some forms of food evidently asso- 
ciated with the presence of the cattle. It seemed as if the life 
and limbs of each individual were momentarily jeoparized by 
the countless feet of the herd, yet in no instance did I ever 
know of either life or limb suffering by the proximity. After- 
wards during the warmest days of summer, these remarkable 
birds may be seen often, perched along the backs of the cattle 
while feeding, and when lying down chewing their cuds, em- 
blems of contentment and repose. At such times I have re- 
peatedly -witnessed the approach of the bird, when it would 
hop from the ground onto the head of the animal, walk un- 
hesitatingly down along the face and pick in the angles of the 
eyes for some time, evidently to the entire satisfaction of the 
animal thus relieved of the annoying flies and midgets abound- 
ing there. 
About the time that the birds generally begin to lay their 
first eggs, the females of this species are noticed to become 
moody, and to separate themselves from the flocks. Flying 
about solitarily from thicket to thicket, and tree to tree, they 
are found to be in the urgent necessities of finding a place in 
which to deposit their matured eggs. Building no nests of 
their own, of the instinct for doing which for some reason they 
are deprived, they drop the imminent egg in the nest of some 
one of the other species of birds, more commonly perhaps, 
that of warblers and sparrows, or the vireos, but scarcely less 
