The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-11-22

The Cowflird Was Barn Tired-How
h Work Of Incubation Is Force,l
on Others.

|
The cowbird was born so tired that
II he could compel any other bird TO
gather his food for him he would do
so. but he cannot, so he scratches
about all day among the herds Of cat
tie and sheep and goes TO roost at
night in great bands OF hundreds OF
lis relatives. always selecting 4 bushy
tree. such as a cypress. for a nights
perch. All up and down the Missis>
sippi valley is the common summer
home OF this bird. for only in the
depth OF winter do they retreat 10
the warmer messas OF Mexico. whittier
most OF the other birds have preceded
them. In the spring following such
a winter they are the first to return,
filling all the new-year air with their
chatter n lining the barnyard trees.
You must not think hat the glossy
black and brown birds so plentiful
around Southern California ~barnyards
during the winter months are cow
birds, for they are not. They are
! called 'grackles," and seem TO be
more like crows h a blackbirds.. You
can find their nests. big bulky affairs,
in the orange and cypress tress OF
almost any of your r2nch homes.
There are many, nan members to
the ~blackbird family, the sweet voiced
meadow larks and the gorgeous, golden
orioles, as we'll as the more sober
colored blackbirds and grackles, and
of all these but one forces the hatch
| ing of her eggs and the feeding of her
II CEnnp nntn nnA-hN ibid -.0~har
| In England, the cuckoo has this
] same habit, but the American cuckoo
| builds her nest and sits on her eggs
as nicely as any robin or love could
do. Sometimes our roadrunner SO far
fcrgets herself as to lay her eggs in
the nest of a quail or a meadow lark,
but not often, but when she does, the
! bird upon whom Mrs. Roadrunner
tries to impose generally breaks the
strange egg or else goes way and
leaves the nest alone. Then the field
mice and wood rats have a feast. 70
WI : sometimes the r~oadrunner
con.uG herself, for she is very fond of
eggs as long as they are not her own.
but the cowbird never makes any
such poor job as tina She always
selects the nest of some smaller bird
in regions where warblers are plen-
tiful the home of one of these little
singers is most frequently chosen
and there, as many eggs as she thinks
n owner of the nest Will submit to
are aid Sometimes the arbler goes
right on ~incubating for the intruder,
but now and then the two old birds
get together and dump the eggs out
on the ground. Nests have been
found in which the warblers put a
mud floor over the first nest and built
another one over the top of it, leaving
their own Eggs to spoil because they
knew no other way to rid themselves
of the cowbird. If the cowbITd comes
back by the repaired nest she will
put another egg in it, and generally
this egg is Matched and raised by the
foster pair OF whom it has been forced,
1t requires about ten or eleven days
for the young cowbird to break the
shell, while most other birds of its
size are two or three days longer, and
thus he has a good start on the other
nestlings in point of growth. When
matched the cowbird is larger than
the sparrow or the warbler. and con-
s~equently gradually crowds them into
the background, taking all the food
that should belong to them. AS they
grow weaker from his, he grows
stronger, and it is not long until he
tips them out Of the nest and is sole
master Of the two old birds, who worh
ceaselessly to satisfy his awful appe-
tite. nj a very few days he gets too
large for the little nest and goes on
into the branches, where the old bird.
L still continue 10 food hin, in NOV
they lever do their own young aftel
they ave left the nest. In Mexico
and South America there is a cowbirc
that sometimes builds a nest of he
own and sits upon and matches he
, own eggs but no such thing ever
!, happens among the black hobos of tn,
{ oriole family found further north.
l. How many eggs a cowbird lays NJ
n knows, but as many as seven hav.
been found in one nest of the over
bird, a kind of thrush found in tn,
l Eastern states. Usually, however, onl.
: one egg is laid in each nest, especial.
/ if the birds to whom the nest belong
are small and the nest too little t
hold more than n of the coWbird'
/ young in comfort. The parent COW
bird never disturbs the eggs of an.
of the birds in whose nests she leave
her own, knowing full well that i
h did so. the nest builder would il
all probability desert her home o
throw the strange egg out. Often
times more than one covbird lays il
the same nest, and as no two eggs o
these birds are ever exactly alik
in color, you may be sure that n
cowbird knows her own egg half
Z minute after she has laid t.-Los Ange