Identifier: birdcraftfield00wrig (find matches)
Title: Birdcraft : a field book of two hundred song, game, and water birds
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Wright, Mabel Osgood, 1859-1934 Fuertes, Louis Agassiz, 1874-1927
Subjects: Birds -- United States
Publisher: New York : Macmillan Co.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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any and many atime seen a young Cowbird, after leaving the nest, beingfed by a bird so much smaller than itself that the poorfoster parent had to stand on tiptoe. Cowbirds eggs have been found in the nests of the Chat,Baltimore Oriole, Wood Thrush, Mourning Dove, Kingbird,Towhee, Vireos, Warblers, and all the Sparrows, and evenin the secluded hut of the Ovenbird, while many nests areso unfortunate as to contain more than one of these eggs. Vagrants as the Cowbirds are in the breeding-season,after the nesting the young do not continue with theirfoster parents, but return to the flocks of their progenitors,and remain with them. Thus these Cowbirds are the social-ists among birds, and are like their human prototypes, whosend their young to free kindergartens and mission schoolsthat they may be fed and clothed at the expense of others;then drawing them surely back, with their inherited prin-ciples unchanged. Some evils are inextricably mixed upwith the foundations of things. 168 PLATE 36.
Text Appearing After Image:
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. Length, about 9 inches. SONG-BIRDS. Red-winged Blackbird Redwinged Blackbird: Agelaius phoeniceus, Plate 36. Length: Very variable; 8.25-9.85 inches. 3fale: Rich blue-black; scarlet shoulders, edged with yellow. Female: Finely speckled with rusty black, brown, and orange. Shoulders obscurely orange-red.Song: A rich, juicy note, — Oucher-la-ree-6 ! Season: Late March to October. Sometimes winters.Breeds: Through summer range.Nest: A bulky pocket hung between reeds or stems of alders, etc.; made of rush blades and grass, and lined with finer grasses.Eggs: 4-6, light blue, fancifully marked with lines, dots, and patches of black and lilac.Range: North America in general, from Great Slave Lake south to Costa Rica. As a summer resident the Ked-winged Blackbird is afamiliar sight in low meadows and along roadsides. At alittle distance he appears to be only a plain, black bird, butas he extends his wings his brilliant epaulets come intoprominence. The plumage of the f

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