Evening star., 1948-05-06
This and That
By Charles E. Trace,peu
EAST AVENUE.

EAST AVENUE.
ON eye level, in our bedroom window In
the silver moon rosebush, perches Mrs Redbird
on her nest
"As soon as she flew off this evening. we had
a look-see into the nest and saw one fairly
large egg. A dull white, speckled with gold
we looked up the information concerning
the redolrd's eggs in our bird book, and they
oont match this egg at all, but the cowbrd
eggs do
We've had pair of cowbirds on the feeding
statlon all spring, so now we feel sure that Door
Mrs Redbird is doing what you might call dou
pie duty-in fact more than that, for she
haSn laid her own eggs yet We can't wait
no" 10 see what will hatch forth. What is your
opinion? WA
The thrushes have been back in our front
yard 1or more than week now. This after
noon we saw our first myrtle warbler
Very truly yours, K. S. S."
Inc cardinals egg is much larger, and more
heavily blotched than that of the cowbird,
In TACT, the latter's egg is rather on the small
side. as bird eggs go.
II the nest can be reached easily, the cowbrd
egg might be removed But not, OF course.
unless one is absolutely sure it is not rishtful
egg Of the nest.
1t is not often that the redbird's nest is used
this way. '' N0'0
Mostly the cowbird puts her eggs in nests of
warblers, but since not many of these nest
hereabout, she must make some other choice.
Ihe mother redbird will not resent the intru-
sion, out Will go right ahead laying her own
eggs, and In time will try to bring up the ba-
pies, her own as we'll as the cowbird offspring
mat is Where the trouble comes in For the
coWolrd son or daughter is large, and vocifer-
Gus. and probably will hatch out dav or 50
before the others. Thus he or she gets the
mother cardinals attention first of all and
manages 10 hold 1t, because OF superior crying
power
The mother bird, in all these cases, never
seems to realize the imposture. She feeds the
most yaWnlng mouth, and if 1t belongs to a
young cowbird, that is all right with her
one may wonder why nature did not endow
mother birds with more sense, but it may be
that IN nature, to leave things alone, as it were,
is the best sense
OF man. apparently. We alone, of created
things, manage to stick our long noses into
everything. and to have ideas about everything.
The animals, birds, fishes and insects accept
more than We do. What is, Is with them:
what will be, will be-
1t is fatalistic attitude, adopted by some
men In their older and more apathetic stages.
But the birds know nothing of this picking
and choosing this balancing and judging
They accept without question the life Sc
lected for them in the beginning
OF the species, only the little yellow warbler
seems to have enough sense to resent the in
trusion Of the mother cowbird with her para
site egg.
She simply builds another nest over the cow
bird egg. If the latter matches out, 1t is lust
too bad, then.
II our correspondent is quite sure the egg
Is that OF a cowbird, she may remove it. or
wait until at least one bona fide cardinal egg
Is laid, so that there may be no mistake about
the matter.
Fortunately. there are no other birds which
play this trick upon its neighbors.
1t Is said that for every cowbird baby brought
to maturity, at least five babies of other species
die.
This is, indeed, rather high price to nav for
coWblrdS But let no one make the mistake
OF thinking that cowbirds are not fine birds.
and beautiful, in their way. The single habit
that makes them objectionable-an this ap-
plies only to the female-has nothing to do
with their appearance or other habits
The male is the only bird of black hue with
a brown head. The female is more sparrow
like in coloration.
AS to their food habits, the cowbrd is bene-
hclal 1t is called cowbird because 1t often
follows cattle, picking up insects stirred up by
the feet OF the animals. It is not believed that
1t sau WORMS q tickA