130 
FLOCKING ALREADY! 
When the rich abundance of summer vegetation 
prompts a reposeful wish for the perpetuation of the 
season, a flock of Blackbirds hurrying across the open 
sky between the rounded oak tops give a hasty 
reminder of the universal law of change ♦ They are 
flocking already, and the summer seems to have 
scarcely yet arrived* Their diminutive and dis- 
reputable cousins, the Cowbirds, have been flocking 
all the year* They shirk the responsibilities of life and 
shift the care of their offspring to others* Through- 
out the spring, when other birds are building nests 
and perfecting their domestic establishments with 
ardent, happy industry, these little outlaws are 
congregating in flocks and loitering idly about the 
pastures* Now and then a solitary female will skulk 
away from the flock to deposit an egg in the nest of a 
Sparrow, Finch, or Warbler, returning again to the 
vagabondia of her kind* This flocking merely betokens 
parasitic idleness, but the flocking of the large 
Blackbirds, early and unwelcome as usual, tells of 
the passing of another season of growth* Unlike their 
little cousins, they are models of domestic virtue* 
As soon as they arrive they proceed at once with the 
