COWBIRD 113 



Look, what a nice new coat is mine ; 



Sure, there was never a bird so fine ! 



Chee, chee, chee." 



This harlequin garb accords well with the 

 bubbling, jerky, almost comic, nature of his 

 music. His liquid notes tumble over each other 

 so rapidly and in such quaint variety as to aston- 

 ish as well as delight the ear. Though he works 

 considerable damage in rice-growing regions, the 

 northern climate which claims him during the 

 nesting and singing season, has no more popular 

 minstrel than this rollicking composer of humor- 

 esques. 



COWBIRD 



Eenegade and slacker we must call him, for 

 what virtue of diligence in insect hunting can 

 make up for the one great fault of the species? 

 For this is the only bird we have in America 

 who neither makes a nest nor cares for its ow T n 

 young. The female lays her white egg and then, 

 watching her chance, slyly carries it to the nest 

 of some smaller bird wiien the home-builders are 

 absent, and leaves it to the care of more honest 

 and responsible parties. Warblers, Sparrows, 

 and Vireos are all victimized in this manner; and 

 while some Warblers are bright enough to out- 

 wit the imposition by building a new nest on top 

 of the first, they will not do so if their own eggs 



