144 BIRDS OF THE PASTURE AND FOREST. 



The Cowbird has no song. Nature seldom furnishes 

 any creature with an instinct which would be of no ser- 

 vice to the species. What occasion has the Cowbird for 

 a song, — a bird that neither wooes nor marries, — a bird 

 that would not sing lullabies to its own young ; that 

 cares no more for one female than for another, and whose 

 indifference is perfectly reciprocated ? As well might a 

 poet write Petrarchian sonnets who was never in love ; or 

 a practical plodder write amatory songs, who asks the 

 members of a church whom he shall marry. There is 

 nothing romantic in this bird's character. His love is a 

 mere gravitation. Nature, despising his habits, has not 

 even arrayed him in attractive plumage ; for why should 

 he have beauty when his whole species are without the 

 sentiment that could appreciate it ? The Cowbirds are 

 the free-love party among the feathered tribes, • — the 

 party also of communism, who would leave their off- 

 spring in others' hands, that they may have leisure for 

 Eesthetic culture. 



" This species," says Dr. Brewer, " is at all times grega- 

 rious and polygamous, never mating and never exhibiting 

 any signs of either conjugal or parental affection. Like 

 the Cuckoos of Europe, our Cow-Blackbird never con- 

 structs a nest of her own, and never hatches out or at- 

 tempts to rear her own offspring, but imposes her eggs 

 upon other bifds ; and most of them, either unconscious 

 of the imposition or unable to rid themselves of the alien, 

 sit upon and hatch the stranger, and in so doing virtually 

 destroy their own offspring ; for the eggs of the Cowbird 

 are the first hatched, usually two days before the others. 

 The nursling is much larger in size, filling up a large 

 portion of the nest, and is insatiable in appetite, always 

 clamoring to be fed, and receiving by far the larger share 

 of the food brought to her nest ; its foster companions, 

 either starved or stifled, soon die, and their dead bodies are 



