246 AMERICAN OL'NITIIOLOGY. 



it is perhaps the only one which has absolutely nothing to commend it 

 to our admiration. It is mean and insignificant looking in appearance, 

 has no gifts of song whatever, and in its marital and domestic charac- 

 ter is thoroughly bad. Polygamous and utterly irresponsible for its 

 offspring, this bird forms a striking contrast to other members of the 

 bird world, and indeed is almost an anomaly in the animal kingdom. 

 During the breeding season, with the true instinct of the skulker, an 

 unnatural mother cowbird may be seen stealing among the trees and 

 shrubbery, seeking for nests of smaller birds who are unable to pro- 

 tect themselves. It rarely imposes upon a bird of its own size, but 

 selects in a cowardly manner a small nest, as that of the vireos or 

 warblers or chipping sparrows, in which to place a surreptitious egg, 

 leaving the hatching and care of its young to the tender mercies of 

 some already burdened little mother. 



In many cases, in order to insure proper attention to its own off- 

 spring, it destroys the eggs already in the nest, by pricking them so 

 that its own egg alone is finally hatched out. But in case the other 

 eggs are left intact, so strangely does nature seem to connive with the 

 interloper, the egg of the parasite almost invariably hatches a day or 

 two sooner than the rest, and the big, clumsy baby cowbird soon grows 

 sufftciently strong to crowd the legitimate family out of the nest. The 

 wit of the smaller birds is, of course, sometimes equal to the occasion^ 

 and when a cowbird's egg is deposited in the newly made nest they 

 immediately build a false bottom or platform over the obnoxious egg 

 and leave it to rot while the legitimate brood is hatched in peace. 

 The larger birds, such as the robin or catbird, make short work of the 

 unwelcome addition to their store. 



But how great an instrument of destruction the cowbird proves itself 

 to be, may perhaps be estimated when it is remembered that it com- 

 mences operations early in April and that in late June, at the close of 

 the nesting season, it is almost impossible to find a nest of one of the 

 smaller birds that has not been visited by some member of this ubiqui- 

 tous pest. And the ungrateful young cowbirds have the family trait. 

 As soon as they are able to go roaming, they desert their foster-parents 

 and join a flock of their own kind. 



If the shiftless cowbird does not find a convenient nest, rather than 

 build one of its own, it will drop its eggs' upon the ground, trusting- 

 them to fate, or worse yet, devouring them. 



Why do the smaller birds tolerate the presence and parasitical opery 

 ations of the cowbird? This is one of the inexplicable problems of 

 nature. A naturalist states that he once watched, a pair of bluebirds 

 for days disputing the possession of a hole in a post against all comers- 



