The C owbird Mijsance. There has been some talk 
here of exterminating the English sparrow from the coun- 
try, but I think they might better exterminate the common 
Cowbird. It is almost impossible for a Chipping bird or 
a Yellow Warbler to build their nest here without having 
one or more Cowbird’s eggs deposited in it. , Last spring I 
took an Oriole’s nest that had been deserted by the old ones, 
I fonnd in it three Oriole’s and three Cowbird’s eggs, and 
under these covered-up were also three more Cowbird’s 
eggs, making nine eggs in the nest. I did hot wonder then 
that they left the nest. I also found an Eaves swallow’s 
nest with four English sparrow’s eggs in it, the first I^have 
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found of either of these nests being occupied or molested by 
other birds.— S. E. Parshatt, Cheshire, iV. Y. Q 
Correspondence. 
That Cheeky Cowbird. 
Editor of 0. & 0.: 
Having read with pleasure and profit the 
article on the Cowbird by Morris Gibbs 
in the January O. & O., and the list of buds 
whose nests are appropriated temporarily by 
said Cowbird, to this list 1 can add the fol- 
lowing : I’ewee, Field Sparrow, Cardinal Gi os- 
beak Black-throated Bunting, Warbling Yu eo, 
White-eyed Vireo, Protlionotary Warbler, Ken- 
tucky Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler Black 
and White Warbler, Blue-wing Yellow Waiblei, 
Baltimore Oriole, Yellow-throated Vireo, Blue 
Grosbeak, Brown Thrasher, Western Meadow 
Lark, Yellow-breasted Chat. Cannot we have 
a list of all the birds who suffer from this bird? 
Let us hear from all who can add to the list 
S. B. Ingersoll. 
Ballston Spa, N. Y. 
Editor of O. <fe ©.„- 
Allow me to add my mite in regard to that 
“cheeky - Cowbird .” That is, a set of four 
Catbirds which contained two of the Cowbird; 
taken near Saginaw, Midi., in 1887. 
Ed. Van Winkle. 
March 9, 1890. 
Vi& O . XV. Mar. 1890 p vf- 
3}ly o-i^0o<2 , •r’frlsv-as. 
Cow bird ( Molothrus ater). Abundant sum- 
I iner resident. The birds whose nests are used 
I the most for a receptacle by the cow bird for 
j its eggs, are the Wood Thrush, Summer War- 
bler and various Vireos. Ov°r one-half of the 
i nests fouud of the first have one or more eggs, 
and 1 have found as high as six with two of the 
Thrush’s. 
O.&O. XII. Jun. 1867 p.f/. 
I also discovered a W arbling Vi reo’s nest which contained 
three Cow Blackbirds’ eggs, and one Vireo. The query is 
“did the same Blackbird lay the three eggs, or were they 
laid by separate birds ?” So far as my observation has 
been the Cowbird never lays but one egg in nest, that is, I 
never found more than one in a nest, and my opinion is that 
they were laid by separate birds. 
O.&O. IX. July. 1884. p. fj. 
The Cowbird. 
The Purple Finch should he added to the 
list of birds imposed upon by the Cowbird. I 
have a clutch of Purple Finch’s eggs, contain- 
ing a Cowbird’s egg. A. II. Alberger. 
Ithaca, N. Y. 
Egg of the Cowbird in Nest of the Carolina Dove. — Mr. E. H. King 
of West Liberty. Iowa, writes me to this effect, adding that the Dove is 
the largest bird he has known to be chosen as the Cowbird’s foster-parent. 
— Elliott Coues, Washing-ton, D. C. Auk, I. July, 1884. p. ,2f 
O.&O. XV. Mir. 1390 p 
$irds Tioga Co, N.T, Aldea Loring-, 1 
258. Cow Bunting or Cowbird. This lazy 
little tyrant is very common, making its arrival 
from the south about the middle of March. 
Too lazy to build itself a nest tlie female de- 
posits her eggs in tlie nests of other birds, the 
principal victims of which are the Bluebird, 
Yellow Bird, Yellow Warbler and Chipping 
Sparrow. 1 have found as many as three eggs 
in one nest. As soon as tlie egg or eggs are 
hatched the ground bird wriggles and twists 
till it throws the other birds out. I remember 
once seeing a little Yellow Warbler feeding 
a Cowbird which was full gro.wn. The meas- 
urement of their eggs is about 7-8 in. by 5-8 in. 
As the last of October draws near tlie young 
and old birds assemble in large flocks and 
leave for tlie south. 
O.'AO' XV, 3GUQ> 1820. P*©3 
Cowbirds in a Black-and-white Creeper’s Nest.— In the spring of 1881 
a friend reported finding a bird’s nest with two sorts of eggs in it. Suspect- 
ing the solution of this mystery, I examined the nest some days later and 
found a couple of young Cowbirds, with gaping mouths but fat and plump, 
while entirely underneath them was an addled Cowbird’s egg and two 
young Black-and-white Creepers, the latter nearly dead from starvation or 
suffocation — or both. 
In this connection I might record taking Cowbird’s eggs frequently 
from nests of the Indigo Bunting, and that invariably the Buntings have 
deserted their nest after these eggs were removed. —John A. Morden, 
Hyde Parle, Ontario. 
Auk, I, April, 1884. p. (*/ 3 ~ • 
Q) 3>. AidVity ■ 
Foster Parents of the Cowbird.— During the season of 1884 I found . Yll! 
young Cowbirds {Molothrus ater. ) in the nests of the Kingbird House of w — 
Wren, and Chipping Sparrow. — William L. Kells, Listowel, Ontario. ir j' s th ~ all the men , boys and cats. 
Auk, 2, Jan., 1885. P. /06- 
O.& O. XI.Nov. 1886 .p- / fa 
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