COW-BIRD. 353 



his name. While singing he raises and depresses his feathers, seems to 

 contract and expand his whole body, bows, nods, and shrugs, till he re- 

 sembles a Freach dancing-master in uniform, singing, fiddling, dancing, 

 and calling off at the same time. In the mating season, several males 

 pursue the same female, flying rapidly and low, filling the air with their 

 chorus of song. 



Several pairs nest in the same field, and when this is entered by a 

 human being, all the males resent the trespass by hovering about, sing- 

 ing and scolding, till he is convinced that a dozen nests are endangered 

 by his every step. 



The nest is placed on the ground, well concealed in the rank clover. 

 It is built of clover and grass stems. The eggs are five or six, dull white, 

 variously shaded, and spotted and blotched with reddish- and grayish- 

 brown. They measure .90 by .70. 



Genus MOLOTHRUS. Swainson. 



Bill short, stout, about two-thirds the length of the head ; the oulmen broad, rounded, 

 convex, and running back on the head to a point. Lateral toes nearly equal, reaching 

 to distal joint of the middle toe, which is shorter than the tarsus. Wings long, pointed, 

 longer than the nearly even tail, first quill longest. 



MoLOTHRUS ATEB (Bodd.) Gr. 



Cow-bird. 



Icterus pecoris, Kiktland, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 162, 180. — Bead, Fam. Visitor, iii, 



1653, 319 ; Proo. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sol., vi, 1853, 395. 

 Moloihrus pecoris, Whbaton, Ohio Agric. Rap. for 1860, 366, 376; Reprint, 1861, 8, 18. 

 Molothrus ater, Wheaton, Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agrio. Eep. for 1874, 567 ; Reprint, 



1875, 7. — Langdon, Cat. Birds of Gin., 1877, 9; Revised List, Journ. Oia. Soo. Nat. 



Hist., i, 1879, 176; Eeprint, 10. 

 Cow Bird ; Cow Blackbird ; CowTroupial, Ebad, Fam. Visitor, iii, 1852, 68. — Kirtland, 



Fam. Visitor, i, 1850, 71.— Ballou, Field and Forest, iii, 1878, 136. 



Fringilla pecoris, Gmblin, Syst. Nat., i, 1788, 910. 



loterua pecoris, Bonaparte, Obs. Wils., 1824, No. 88. 



Molothrus pecoris, Swainson and Eichardson, Fn. Bor.-Am., ii, 1831, 277. 



Molothrus aier, Gray, Hand List, ii, 1870, 36. 



Male, iridescent black; head and neck purplish-brown. Female, smaller, an obscure 

 looking bird, nearly uniform dusky grayish-brown, but rather paler below, and appear- 

 ing somewhat streaky, owing to darker shaft lines on nearly all the feathers ; bill and 

 feet black in both sexes. Length, 7|-8 ; wing, over 4 ; tail, over 3. 



Habitat, Temperate North America to latitude 68°, excepting perhaps the Paciflo 

 coast; in Arizona, Lower California, and southward replaced by var. oiscurus. 



Abundant summer resident from March to the last of October. Breeds. 

 Apparently a late addition to our fauna, for Dr. Kirtland admited it "on 

 rather doubtful authority," and Mr. Read said, in 1853, that it had re- 

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