Evening star., 1948-07-24
This and That
Bu Charles Z. Trace,peu

A cowbird baby Matched out in robins nest
is fortunate, even if it doesn't know it.
It does not cause the death of the young
robins. as 1t might have of young warblers,
so much smaller than itself
The other day we watched mother robin
feeding her own babies and a cowbird.
The latter was a beauty, soft gray and
brown, more resembling its mother than father,
he of the coal black body and brown head.
The mother robin gave equally to her own
and to the young cowbrd.
No doubt in the nest she gave equally, one
after the other. IT.
In smaller birds nest the cowbird baby
would have been so much larger than the
rightful heirs of the nest that the latter would
not have got their full share.
It is for this reason that experts claim that
for every cowbird baby raised to adulthood,
at least five other native birds lose their lives.
This is the claim. Many persons who watch
birds venture to question 1t. After all, how
can any one prove such statement?
It probably was based, in the first place,
on dead birds found in or around warbler's
nest.
Various warblers seem to be the favorite
victims.
They. really are victims, too, and here is
the reason:
1t seems in birdland that parent birds feed
the most vociferous baby first.
And they keep on feeding it, until it refuses
to eat more.
The idealic picture of the mother bird Drop
ping an insect or worm in one bill after another
Is not, then, strictly correct
This means that in a small birds nest the
large cowbird baby gets the lions share of the
food.
Not only that. Since its egg was larger, to
begin with, the mother bird covered 1t better,
and so 1t got the biggest share of warmth, too
This meant that 1t Matched out first, and so
began eating before the others.
Being bigger, it may even have displaced
some Of the rightful babies.
All In all, in a warbler's nest, the cowbird
baby is case of first come first served" and
so there may be some truth to the statement
that at least five other birds die that 1t may
live.
In robins nest, however the cowbird baby
Is strictly on its own
Baby robins can open their mouths quite as
wide as the cowbird.
The mother and father robins will nav as
much attention to their own.
1t may strike some as odd that the parent
birds see no difference between their own and
the imposter
Probably this is a provision of nature It
is seldom that bird detects wrong egg in
its nest or shows any resentment of the larger
or differently colored intruder
This seems to be a trait that runs through
all animate nature. Every one has seen cases
of hens that mothered puppies. or dogs that
have taken care of kittens. or mother cats of
puppies.
The robin in the grass seemed quite as
fond Of her cowbird baby" as of her very
own young ones, and the other robins did
not in any way seem to resent it, either
This should be accepted, then, as a plea
to watchers not to grow too angry at what they
deem the bad features of the cowbirds.
Except for that one nefarious act of plac-
Ing her egg In another bird nest for another
mother to raise, the cowbird mother, If so
she may be called, is right good citizen Of
birdland. So Is the male. He is q beauty, and
nice to have In yard
After all, birds have been around since the
Jursssic age. In all that immensity of time,
none of US was there. Now 1t will seem
rather silly to suddenly grow red in the face
over the nefarious actions OF otherwise nice
BIRDS
This is in no extenuation of what the mother
cowbird does. Certainly she Is flying in the face
of all tradition, both human and avian. But
at least she gives us q chance to watch In
action that good principle. feeding the hungry.
Human altruism has its foundation in nature.