[Illustration:  Cowbird]

“When the Sparrow comes home she may wonder at the strange egg, and perhaps be able to push it out of the nest; but more likely she takes no notice of it, as it is so much like her own, and lets it stay.  If she does this, that egg is only the beginning of trouble.  It is larger than her own, so it gets more warmth and hatches more quickly.  Then the young Cowbird grows so fast that it squeezes the little Sparrows dreadfully, sometimes quite out of the nest, and eats so much that they are half or wholly starved.  The poor Sparrow and her mate must sometimes think what a big child it is; but they feed it kindly until it can fly—­sometimes even after it leaves the nest.  Then it goes back to join the flock its tramp parents belong to, without so much as saying ‘thank you’ to its foster parents.

“A Cowbird lays only one egg in each nest, but sometimes several visit the same nest in succession; and then the poor Sparrow has a hard time, indeed.

“The Yellow Warbler is one of the clever birds who will not always be imposed upon—­you remember the two-storied nest we found; and some of the larger birds push out the strange egg.  But Cowbirds are very crafty, and usually select their victims from among the small, feeble, and helpless.”

“Does this hateful Cowbird over sing?” asked Dodo.

“Sometimes in spring he tries to; he squeaks a few notes, and makes faces, struggling, choking, wheezing, as if he had swallowed a beetle with hooks on its legs and was in great pain.  It is a most startling noise, but it certainly is not musical, though perhaps it pleases the Cowbird ladies; for if they have such bad taste in other ways, they doubtless like such harsh and inharmonious sounds.”

“I don’t see what makes them act so,” said Rap.  “I thought birds had to build nests, or have a hole or a bit of ground or rock of their own—­that it was a law.”

“So it is, my boy; but the Cowbird is one of the exceptions I told you about; and I am glad to say there are very few.”

The Cowbird

Length about seven and a half inches.

Male:  very glossy black, excepting the head and neck, which are shiny dark brown like burnt coffee.

Female:  dusky brown, the lower parts lighter than the upper.

A Citizen of the entire United States.

A Ground Gleaner and a Weed Warrior, to some extent, but a bad neighbor, a worse parent, a homeless vagabond, and an outlaw in Birdland.

ON AGAIN

The road crept down hill, passed through a village, and then into the woods once more.  The children saw a great many bird friends—­Swallows, Goldfinches, a beautiful Blue Jay, which was new to them, and some Yellow Warblers.  They stopped for half an hour in the wooded lane, where a Chat whistled to them, a Scarlet Tanager flew hastily overhead, and the Doctor showed them a Towhee rambling among the leaves, while a little brownish bird kept flitting into the air and back to his perch, calling “pewee—­pe-a-r!” in a sad voice.