226 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the valleys and cleared lands of the Adirondacks to the farthest edge of 

 the Alleghanian area in that district. In the southern portion of the 

 State it is frequently found throughout the winter. On several occasions 

 in different cities of central and western New York I have noticed one 

 or more cowbirds that were spending the winter in company with English 

 sparrows, and on the Montezuma marshes, when the sedges and grasses 

 have borne good seed, it is not an uncommon occurrence to meet with 

 flocks of from lOO to 300 cowbirds in the severest part of the winter; but 

 this has not been observed in recent years. Occasionally small flocks 

 are observed during winter in the Hudson valley, and in central and western 

 New York, but they seem to be wandering from place to place. The 

 spring migration of the Cowbird is well started by the middle or the 20th 

 of March, the bulk of birds which have migrated southward arriving before 

 the 30th of March or the loth of April. In the fall the species becomes 

 scarce or wholly disappears from the ist to the loth of November. 



Haunts and habits. The Cowbird is so named from its habit of 

 following cattle in the pasture and frequently alighting on their backs 

 in order to secure insects which infest them or which are driven from the 

 grass as they browse along. In this way, of course, the bird accomplishes 

 some good. It also devours immense quantities of weed seeds, not only 

 in the spring and summer, but more particularly in the fall when it fre- 

 quents grain fields and, as my examinations have shown, feeds not so much 

 upon the waste grain as upon the seeds of pigeon grass, ragweed, smart- 

 weed, pigweed and other species which grow in profusion in all cultivated 

 lands. In this way I have reckoned that at least half an ounce of seed 

 a day is, on the average, destroyed by each member of the flock. The 

 flocks of cowbirds found during September in the grain fields and pastures 

 are so large that on one occasion after discharging my gun into a flock 

 which was passing I picked up 64 birds from the two discharges of the 

 gun, which will indicate the density of the flock. My estimate of the 

 flock referred to was that there were between 7000 and 10,000 birds. 

 The usual flock in the fall, however, consists of from 50 to 200 birds. They 



