00 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE OF MICHIGAN. 



206-495-(313). Molothrus ater (Bodd.). * Cowbird; Sazy Bird; Cow Bunting. 

 Increasingly abundant; throughout the State; March to November; insect feeder; 

 "Keweenaw Point" (Kneeland); rests on cattle and picks flies, hence name Cowbird; 

 often in flocks; lays its eggs " extensively " (L. S. Foster) in other birds' nests, especially 

 in nests of Grass Finch, Chipping and Song Sparrows, Orchard Orioles. Thrushes 

 Warblers, King Birds and Pewee; Mr. A. H. Boies thinks that this bird lays only one 

 egg in any one nest (O. and O., Vol. IX, 1884, p. 90); Jerome Trombley has taken these 

 eggs from the nests of thirty other kinds of birds; Prof. James Satterlee has taken eggs 

 in Greenville, Montcalm County, from the nests of the Hermit Thrush and the Green- 

 crested Flycatcher; Dr. Gibbs has found its eggs in the nests of the Wood Thrush, 

 Bluebird, eight species of Warblers, Scarlet Tanager, Chewink, Traill's and Acadian 

 Flycatchers, three species of Vireos, and five other species. R. H. Wolcott has found 

 its eggs in the nest of Wilson's Thrush, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow Warbler, Swamp 

 Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bird, 

 Orchard and Baltimore Orioles, Wood Pewee, and once in that of the Meadow Lark; 

 F. M. Falconer finds the eggs most frequently in the nest of the Yellow Warbler; and 

 in two cases he has found the eggs covered over and a new set deposited; Dr. Atkins 

 reports finding eggs in the nest of the Golden Crowned Thrush, Rose-breasted 

 Grosbeak and Hooded Warbler; in this peculiar habit this bird is like the European 

 Cuckoo " (usually) lays eggs in nests of small birds which have a longer period of incu- 

 bation, thus giving its young the first chance and ' freezing out ' the rightful possessor " 

 (C. J. Davis); S. E. White reports this bird at Mackinac Island but only as a migrant, 

 and E. E. Brewster writes that it is common at Iron Mountain. "A male was seen daily 

 the winter of 1892 at Alma, Michigan, with a flock of English Sparrows." " I have 

 seen eggs walled in in Yellow Bird's nests" (Prof. C. A. Davis). A. H. Boies has given 

 a similar case in O. and O., Vol. IX, 1884, p. 128. For interesting article on this species 

 by Dr. M. Gibbs, see O. and O., Vol. XV, 1890, p. 5. 



Genus XANTHOCEPHALUS Bonap. 



207-497-(319). Xanthocepkalus xanthoceplialus (Bonap.). Yellow-headed 

 Blackbird. 

 Very rare; "extreme southwestern part of the State; probably breeds" (Gibbs); 

 " never seen at Ann Arbor " (Dr. J. B. Steere); " very doubtful if it breeds in the State '> 

 (A. H. Boies); one taken at Iron Mountain, Northern Peninsula, May 17, 1890, by E. E. 

 Brewster; " common in Northern Wisconsin' and presumably in the Northern Penin- 

 sula " (Prof. Ludwig Kumlein); " breeds in Lake County Indiana " (Butler's Birds of 

 Indiana). 



Genus AGELAIUS Vieill. 



208^498-(316). Agelaiiis plioenicens (Linn.). *Rbd-winged Blackbird. 



Exceedingly common; throughout the state; March to September; "Traverse City 

 where it breeds" (L. W. Watkins); "common at Mackinac Island" (S. E. White); 

 " common at Iron Mountain " (E. E. Brewster); " Keweenaw Point " (Kneeland); breeds; 

 two broods; nests in May, in grass clumps or low brush-wood in marshes; nests usually 

 surrounded by water; eggs four to five, rarely six, light blue, streaked and specked 

 with brown or black; food insects and grain, principally corn; often seen in flocks 

 especially in autumn. 



