662 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
of the male Cowbird, as witnessed at Lake Burford, is graphically 
described by Doctor Wetmore. “The bird would rest quietly for a 
few seconds, then expand the tail and draw the tip slightly forward, 
erect the feathers of the back and to a less extent those of breast and 
abdomen, and then sing bub-ko-lum-tsee. In giving the first three 
notes he rose twice to the full extent of his legs and sank back quickly 
. . . While watching [him] I heard a low call like tsee tsee, to which 
[he] responded. At once a second male came flying in, and, suddenly 
checking when two or three feet from the bush, extended the bill 
straight up and in this attitude came down slowly to a perch three 
feet from the first bird. This one at once assumed the same attitude 
and the two remained thus for two or three minutes with bills pointing 
straight in the air, twisting their heads around but seeming never to 
look directly at one another. Finally first one and then the other 
lowered his bill and glanced at his neighbor but immediate^ stiffened 
up again in the erect attitude. The newcomer gradually relaxed, 
finally sinking down and fluffing out his feathers, to remain almost 
asleep. The original male then began to sing, opening his wings wide 
and then closing them again in addition to his other motions and at 
times nearly overbalancing in the violence of his display.” (1920a, 
p. 402). 
At Mesilla Park, in spring, Professor Merrill found, the Cowbirds 
return in small flocks about the first of March and “stay around 
wherever there are cattle, either on the plains or in the valley, feeding 
on insects, grass and weed seeds, and grain at the troughs or in droppings. 
For this reason they are beneficial, but one would rather see them 
devote a part of their time to the more natural function of raising 
their families themselves. In the latter part of July they begin to form 
in larger flocks, their little foundlings, then grown, joining them until 
the numbers reach into the hundreds” (MS). While going about in 
these large fall flocks, Mr. Ligon reports, they do “great damage to 
the heads and grain of forage crops” (MS). 
[SAGEBRUSH COWBIRD: Molothrus ater artemisiae Grinnell 
Description. —Wing: Male, 4.5 inches. Like ater but larger, with longer and 
relatively more slender bill, vertically shallow at base and laterally compressed, the 
upper outline straight or even slightly depressed. The male is indistinguishable in 
color from ater but the female is paler, being drab instead of slaty hair-brown, with 
much paler clay-color on the throat. 
Range. —Breeds from southern British Columbia (mainly east of Cascades), 
southern Mackenzie and southern Manitoba south to North Dakota, Wyoming, 
central Utah, Nevada, and California (east of Sierra Nevada); winters south to 
southern Texas, Vera Cruz, Michoacan, Tepic, and southern Lower California. 
State Records, —The Sagebrush Cowbird undoubtedly crosses New Mexico in 
migration, but apparently there are no specimens as yet recorded from the Stated 
