198 THE BIRDS 
FAMILY ICTERIDAE.—BLACKBIRDS, 
ORIOLES, ETC. 
GENUs MOoLOTHRUS. 
[495]. Dolothrus ater ater (Boddaert). Cowbird. 
[Cow Bunting. Cow Blackbird]. 
Rance.—North America. Breeds from southern 
British Columbia, southern Mackenzie, Southern Kee- 
watin, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick south to 
northern California, Nevada, northern New Mexico, 
Texas, Louisiana, and North Carolina; winters from 
southeastern California and the Ohio and Potomac valleys 
(casually further north) to the Gulf Coast and central 
Mexico. 
Too much can not be said against this parasite of the 
feathered tribe. I am well within bounds when I state 
that they do more damage to the smaller breeding birds 
than all other causes put together, not excluding the 
oologists even. For the benefit of any possible reader not 
knowing why I make such a broad statement, I will 
explain that these birds build no nest or home of their 
own, but deposit their egg or eggs in that of other species 
of birds. Some species object most strenuously to hatch- 
ing these large eggs, sometimes nearly twice as large as 
their own, and either desert their nest entirely, or build a 
platform over the Cowbird’s egg, sometimes including one 
or more of their own, and commence laying again. As 
the young Cowbird is nearly twice the size of the young 
of the foster parent, and as they thus readily secure the 
