600 



BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



evidently perfectly at home. The gaily dressed males, in the pink of 

 perfection as to their nuptial attire, and singing with the utmost volu- 

 bility, were very conspicuous objects all over the prairie ; but the secretive 

 and homely females were seldom observed unless accidentally flushed 

 from the grass. The nest is so well hidden that I did not discover one, 

 though I searched long and carefully on more than one occasion 5 and 

 I am therefore unable to state the exact period of laying. To judge from 

 the actions of the birds and the complete separation and hiding of the 

 females, incubation was in progress by the second week in June. 



On the same parallel of latitude, I traced the species westward quite to 

 the Eocky Mountains, where it was not uncommon in August about 

 Chief Mountain Lake. In the Upper Missouri country, however, I 

 failed to observe a single individual. The sterile, alkaline, and sage- 

 brush nature of most of this region seems to be ill-suited to its wants. 



The very highly plumaged specimens taken at Pembina have been made 

 by Mr. E. Eidgway the basis of a var. albinucJia, the bufty patch upon the 

 back of the neck being nearly white in these cases. 



List of specimens. 



MOLOTHRUS ATEE, {Bodd.) Ormj. 



OOWBIRD. 



I have nowhere found the Cowbird more abundant than it is in sum- 

 mer throughout the region surveyed by the Commission. Even were 

 the birds not seen, ample evidence of their presence in numbers would 

 be found in the alien eggs with which a majority of the smaller birds of 

 that country are pestered. (Scarcely any species, from the little Fly- 

 catcher {E. minimus) and the Clay-colored Bunting up to the Towhee 

 and Kingbird, escapes the infliction. The breeding species are there 

 fewer than in many or most localities in the East, though abounding in 

 individuals j both of which circumstances tend to increase the propor- 

 tion of cases in which the parasitism is accomplished. It has been cus- 

 tomary — and very properly so — to record the various species which suffer 

 from the Cowbird 5 but it seems probable that when the whole truth is 



