A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 2 of 3Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Science
A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 2 of 3
Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Birds -- North America
Mr. Nuttall states that if a Cow Blackbird’s egg is deposited in a
nest alone it is uniformly forsaken, and he also enumerates the Summer
Yellowbird as one of the nurses of the Cowbird. In both respects I
think he is mistaken. So far from forsaking her nest when one of these
eggs is deposited, the Red-eyed Vireo has been known to commence
incubation without having laid any of her own eggs, and also to
forsake her nest when the intrusive egg has been taken and her own
left. The _D. æstiva_, I think, invariably covers up and destroys the
Cowbird’s eggs when deposited before her own, and even when deposited
afterwards.
The Cow Blackbird has no attractions as a singer, and has nothing that
deserves the name of song. His utterances are harsh and unmelodious.
In September they begin to collect in large flocks, in localities
favorable for their sustenance. The Fresh Pond marshes in Cambridge
were once one of their chosen places of resort, in which they seemed
to collect late in September, as if coming from great distances. There
they remained until late in October, when they passed southward.
Mr. Ridgway only met with this species in two places, the valley of
the Humboldt in September, and in June in the Truckee Valley. Their
eggs were also obtained in the Wahsatch Mountains, deposited in the
nest of _Passerella schistacea_, and in Bear River Valley in the nest
of _Geothlypis trichas_.
Mr. Boardman informs me that the Cow Blackbird is a very rare bird in
the neighborhood of Calais, Me., so much so that he does not see one
of these birds once in five years, even as a bird of passage.
The eggs of this species are of a rounded oval, though some are more
oblong than others, and are nearly equally rounded at either end. They
vary from .85 of an inch to an inch in length, and from .65 to .70 in
breadth. Their ground-color is white. In some it is so thickly covered
with fine dottings of ashy and purplish-brown that the ground is not
distinguishable. In others the egg is blotched with bold dashes of
purple and wine-colored brown.
On the Rio Grande the eggs of the smaller southern race were found in
the nests of _Vireo belli_, and in each of the nests of the _Vireo
pusillus_ found near Camp Grant, Arizona, there was an egg of this
species. At Cape St. Lucas, Mr. Xantus found their eggs in nests of
the _Polioptila melanura_. We have no information in regard to their
habits, and can only infer that they must be substantially the same as
those of the northern birds.
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