The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-01
TRICK OF 4 MEAN Bird
Tho Cow Blackbird Will Steal Eggs
and Substitute Its Own
Therefor.
In This Way It Imposes Grievously
on It's More Industrious
Neighbours
Peculiar Efforts Of thu C0wblrd to Mako
Music and tho Peculiar Results
Achieved by II.

Written for THE HELENA I~NDErENDENT.1
YsYOW MANY CURIOUS LITTLE IN
81 cidents in the lives Of the birds are
III happening all about us which we do
not sec, or, II seeing, do not understand.
Walking along a path the other day I saw
= birds egg. that OF 3 chippie. lying upon
tho ground. II was fresh and had prob
ably besn dropped there but m hour or
two before. II had Two small holes in It
about one-quarter of an inch apart, which
puzzled me. What made these holes and
how came tho egg to DO placed there upon
the ground 20 carefully % not to break It?
A few days after Z little incident camo
under my observation that threw light on
the stray egR.
I was sitting in the summer house one
June day, when I CHANGED 10 see q cow
blackbird fly out from the branches of the
maple above me and 60 down to the
ground among the grape vines below me
with something in her beak. Tn bird
alighted upon the ground and remained
motionless. kept my eye upon her.
Presently she lay down her burden and
stepped along a foot or two. She seemed
Watching to sec if she was herself watched.
/ went down to sec what she had depos-
tied there so stealthily. II proved to be
the freshly-laid eggs Of the red-eyed vireo.
II was yet warm, and was p%unctured with
two holes, like the egg Of the chippie ! had
found.
had suspected there was q nest Of the
the vireo in the maple above me and had
searched for il several times without sue
cess. Not half an hour before I witnessed
the incident Of the cowbird I had seen the
vireos leave the tree and fy with a peculi-
arly happy air down the hill toward q little
maple grove. They vent as II hand in
hand like two children. The female had
probably Just deposited an egg in the nest,
and the happy couple were of for q midday
lunch together.
The cowbird was probably on the watch
somewhere. and stole to the nest the moment
egg she seized and bore it away. prepara-
tory to putting one of her own in its place.
Irenewed my search for the nest. I scru-
tinized the branches from every possible
standpoint. Presently I stepped a yard
down the bank. shot my eve along q little
was-a little gray mass far out toward the
end of an inaccessible branch. Unless I
planted my foot on a particular spot of
ground and inclined my body at just such
an angle, the nest could not be seen. As
the nest could not be reached ! could not
complete the observation.
From time to time. for a week or more, l
saw the parent bird sitting, but some mis-
hap must have befallen the nest a. no
young vireos were ever seen or heard in the
tree, and the old bird disappeared.
In the fall I cut off the branch that held
the nest, to see whether or not the birds
had buried tho egg OF the cowbird in the
bottom, but it was not there.
The little summer yellow bird will fire.
quently get rid of the strange egg in this
way. l have heard Of a most being carried
up three sto1 les, SO to speak, for this pur-
pose; two strange eggs were successfully
buried in the bottom.
The red-eye is very often the victim of
this trick of the cowbird. hardly a sum
mer passes that I do not see this little trim /
ash-colored bird pursued by its large,
dusky, greedy bantling.
It ia my opinion that the cowbird usually
removes an egg from the nest in which it
designs placing its own. 1t has been seen
to remove a hens egg from the nest, the
little owners following it and scolding as
only wrenH can.
The birds that fall n victim to the COW
bird in this way never seem to suspect that
this dusky creature is their enemy. I have
never seen them show the least sign of hos
tility toward it. The robins and nearly all
the orchard birds will mob the jay. because
they know the jny to be an egg sucker. So
will the robins hustle a red squirrel out Of
the tree that holds their nest; but I doubt
if any of the birds suspect that the oow-
bunting victimizes them in the way it does.
1t ia a trick cleverly managed. The bird
watches its opportunity; it does not disturb
the other eggs except to remove one to make
room for it's own. The success of its little
plan is frustrated if it blunders in any way
80 as to excite the suspicious of the owner
cf the nest. The only blunder it ever does
make is to drop its egg too soon, or before
oAe nest contains other eggs. / say drop;
the bunting probably takes but a fraction
of the time to deposit its egg hat other
birds do. I have never yet heard of one
being seen on the nest.
1t seems to know. too, that if its egg is
once Matched the rightful occupants stand
but a poor show. What a terrible tragedy
this would be if it could be repeated in the
human sphere: A strange baby in the ora
die which rapidly grows to unusual dimen-
she other children by devourinR all tho
food the parents bring. the latter under
some spell which prevents them from seeing
what is taking place?
The cow-bunting is among the early
arrivals in the spring.. usually reaching
of March. It musical talent is not great,
yet its peculiar ~vitreous notes arc pleasing. |
The manner of their delivery is interesting.
1t looks as if they must BIZ formed in the
birds crop, and then expelled with much
effort and labor. They are not the least bit
lingual. The sonRster pufs himself up.
and wrenohes out the notes with a kind of
cultural spasm. Yet they have a sweet
ringing cadence.
In midsummer the young leave their
foster parents and begin to collect in small
Hooks, aud in September move southwark.
JOHN BURROUGHS.
BuckIen's Arnica Snlve.