Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1903 — HABITS OF COWBIRD. [ARTICLE]

HABITS OF COWBIRD.

It Associates with the Animals in Or. der to Find Insects. The cowbird Is black and a little smaller than the red-winged blackbird. There are three species, two of which—the common and red-eyed—migrate to our Northern States and are found associated together. The male of the common cowbird has a head and neck of deep wood-brown, while the redeyed is wholly black and very lustrous. The .females are smaller than the males and duller In color, although the red-eyed female is quite black. The bird receives Its name from Its association with cows, beside which it feeds, snatching up the insects that are disturbed by their heavy tread. About half a dozen usually attend a single animal or a bunch of cattle, part of which may be of one species and part of the other. Indeed, the two associate together aa peacefully as though they were of the same species. The most serious Indictment against the cowbird Is that It builds no nests and does not rear Its own family. Its eggs are laid In the nests of greenlets, warblers, finches and other blackbirds, most of which are smaller than itself. Of the first five red-wings' nests examined In 1902, four contained the eggs of the cowbird. The summer warbler was one day found burying the detectable egg in the bottom of her nest, together with one of her own. Two orchard orioles’ nests, not fifty feet apart each contained the egg of the parasite, probably of the same breed.—Country Life in America. Distribute fifteen or twenty cents around among the neighbor children, and you can create more happiness than the Iron kings when they give a million to a college.