. Birds of Washington and vicinity, including adjacent parts of Maryland and Virginia . ut thefeet of the herd, presumably to feed on the insectsfound there. They build no nest, and the females,lacking every moral and maternal instinct, leave theircompanions only long enough to deposit their eggsin the nests of other and smaller birds. I can im-agine no sight more strongly suggestive of a thor-oughly despicable nature than a female Cowbirdsneaking through the trees or bushes in search of avictim upon whom to shift the duties of motherhood. The ill-gotten offspring are born with the Cowbirdchar
. Birds of Washington and vicinity, including adjacent parts of Maryland and Virginia . ut thefeet of the herd, presumably to feed on the insectsfound there. They build no nest, and the females,lacking every moral and maternal instinct, leave theircompanions only long enough to deposit their eggsin the nests of other and smaller birds. I can im-agine no sight more strongly suggestive of a thor-oughly despicable nature than a female Cowbirdsneaking through the trees or bushes in search of avictim upon whom to shift the duties of motherhood. The ill-gotten offspring are born with the Cowbirdcharacter fully developed. They demand by far thegreater share of the food, and through gluttony ormere size alone, starve or crowd out the rightful occu COIVBIRD. 99 pants of the nest. They accept the attention of theirfoster-parents long after they could care for them-selves; and when nothing more is to be gained, desertthem and join the growing flocks of their kind in thegrain fields. The rather large egg of the Cowbird is white, evenlyspeckled with brown. lOO RED- WIXGED BLA RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. Red-winged Blackbird; Marsh Blackbird: Agela-ius phcc7iicetis. Length 95^ inches; female smaller, Male, glossy black, except the shoulders, which are scar-let edged with buff. Female, quite different; conspicuously streaked all overwith brown, black and whitish; shoulder patches pinkish; touches of yellowish-white on wings. Resident (common) all the year; abundant in migrations. Early in March these picturesque birds arrive inflocks from the South, joining their hardier or more RED- IVIXGED BLA CKIURP. \o i courageous brothers who have spent the winter males, gorgeous in their epaulets of scarlet andgold, precede by some days their less showy butequally well-dressed wives. Ouonk-cr-rce, Quonk-er-rcc, they cry, and the musical call is as much a partof spring on the marshes as is the frog chorus withwhich it mingles. Most of the Red-wings soon pass o
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