File:Birds of Washington and vicinity (1902) (14775242203).jpg

Identifier: birdsofwashingt00mayn (find matches)
Title: Birds of Washington and vicinity
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Maynard, Lucy (Warner), 1852-1936. (from old catalog)
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: Washington, D.C., Woodward & Lothrop
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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out the feet of the herd, presumably to feed on theinsects found there. They build no nest, and thefemales, lacking every moral and maternal instinct,leave their companions only long enough to deposittheir eggs in the nests of other and smaller birds.I can imagine no sight more strongly suggestive ofa thoroughly 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- COWBIRD 99 pants of the nest. They accept the attention of theirfosterrparents 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,evenly speckled with brown. LcfC. IOO RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD
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RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. Red-winged Blackbird; Marsh Blackbird: Agelaius phoeniceus. Length g)/2 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 rusty-red,sometimes 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-WINGED BLACKBIRD 101 courageous brothers who have spent the winter here.The males, gorgeous in their epaulets of scarlet andgold, precede by some days their less showy butequally well-dressed wives. Quonk-er-ree. 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 on north, butsome remain to breed in the marshes of the Potomacand Anacostia Rivers, and in othe

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