y species? He
evidently subserves some useful purpose in the avian community, or he
would not be treated with so much consideration.

A young cowbird that I purloined from the nest and tried to rear by
hand did not prove a pleasant pet. He was placed in a large cage with
several other kinds of young birds. At first he was quite docile,
taking his food from my hand and even allowing some of his feathered
companions to feed him; but in a few weeks he grew so wild and
manifested such a fierce desire for the outdoor world that I was glad
to carry him out to the woods and give him his freedom. A young
red-winged blackbird and a pair of meadowlarks developed a different
disposition.

The dwarf cow-bird (_Molothrus ater obscurus_) is similar to his
relative just described, except that he is smaller and his geographical
range is more restricted. He is a resident of Mexico, southern Texas,
southwestern Arizona, and southern California. His habits resemble
those of the common cowbird. Another bunting having almost the same
range, although a little more southerly, is the red-eyed cowbird, which
is larger and darker than our common cowbird and has the same
parasitical habits.

In South America three species have been studied by Mr. W. H. Hudson,
who, in collaboration with Mr. P. L. Sclater, has published a most
valuable work on Argentine ornithology. One of these is called the
Argentine cowbird (_Molothrus bonariensis_). It is a blue-blooded
parasite, and has been seen striking its beak into the eggs of other
birds and flying away with them. The males, it is said, show little
discrimination in pecking the eggs, for they are just as likely to
puncture the cowbird eggs as those of other birds. Every egg in a nest
is frequently perforated in this way. These buntings lay a large
number of eggs, often dropping them on the ground, laying them in
abandoned nests, or depositing them in nests in which incubation has
already begun, in which case all of them are lost. However, in spite
of this wastefulness the birds thrive, thousands of them being seen in
flocks during the season of migration.

And, by the way, a description of their habits by Mr. Hudson has thrown
interesting light on the subject of migration in the southern
hemisphere. South of the equator the recurrence of the seasons is the
exact reverse of their recurrence north of the equator, and therefore
the breeding season of the birds is in the autumn instead of