Red-winged Blackbird 141 
you peck holes in that egg, or roll it out of 
your nest, or build another cradle rather than 
hatch a big, greedy interloper that would 
smother and starve your own babies? Prob- 
ably every cowbird you see has sacrificed the 
lives of at least part of a brood of valuable, 
insectivorous songsters. Without the least 
spark of gratitude in its cold heart, a young 
cowbird grafter forsakes its over-kind foster 
parents as soon as it can pick up its living 
and remains henceforth among its own kin — 
of whom only cows could think well. 
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD 
Called also: Swamp Blackbird 
When you are looking for the first pussy 
willows in the frozen marshes, or listening to 
the peeping of young frogs some day in early 
spring, you will, no doubt, become acquainted 
with this handsome blackbird, with red and 
orange epaulettes on his shoulders, who has 
just returned from the South. ''Ke, kong- 
ker-ee” he flutes from the willows and alders 
about the reedy meadows where he and his 
bachelor friends flock together and make them 
ring “with social cheer and jubilee.” A little 
later, flocks of dingy, brown, streaked birds, 
