COWBIRD. 105 
occasionally the rice and corn fields, as well as their more 
notorious associates, but are more inclined to native food and 
insects at all times, so that they are more independent and 
less injurious to the farmer. As they exist in Mexico and 
California, it is probable that they are also bred in the higher 
_table-lands, as well as in the regions of the north. In Loui- 
siana, however, according to Audubon, they are rare visitors 
at any season, seeming more inclined to follow their route 
through the maritime districts. Over these countries, high in 
the air, in the month of October, they are seen by day winging 
their way to the remoter regions of the south. 
We have observed that the Red-wings separate in parties, 
and pass a considerable part of the summer in the necessary 
duties of incubation. But the Cow-pen Birds release them- 
selves from all hindrance to their wanderings. The volatile 
disposition and instinct which prompt birds to migrate, as the 
seasons change and as their food begins to fail, have only a 
periodical influence ; and for a while they remain domestic, 
passing a portion of their time in the cares and enjoyments of 
the conjugal state. But with our bird, like the European 
Cuckoo, this season never arrives; the flocks live together 
without ever pairing. A general concubinage prevails among 
them, scarcely exciting any jealousy, and unaccompanied by any 
durable affection. From the commencement of their race they 
have been bred as foundlings in the nests of other birds, and 
fed by foster-parents under the perpetual influence of delusion 
and deception, and by the sacrifice of the concurrent progeny 
of the nursing birds. Amongst all the feathered tribes hitherto 
known, this and the European Cuckoo, with a few other species 
indigenous to the old continent, are the only kinds who never 
make a nest or hatch their young. That this character is not 
a vice of habit, but a perpetual instinct of nature, appears from 
various circumstances, and from none more evidently than from 
this, that the eggs of the Cow Troopial are earlier hatched than 
those of the foster-parent, — a singular and critical provision, on 
which perhaps the existence of the species depends; for did 
the natural brood of the deceived parent come first into exis- 
