Length: About 8 inches.

Male: Glossy black, with a brown head, neck, and breast; some metallic reflections on body, tail, and upper wing-feathers. Smaller than the grackle, with a shorter tail, less iridescence, and dark eyes. Like the grackle, the cowbird is a walker.

Female: Dark brown, with a grayish tinge; under parts lighter, especially the throat, which has two dark streaks outlining the light patch.

Call-note: A loud chuck.

Song: No real song, only a disagreeable gurgle, that is emitted with great effort.

Habitat: Pastures and open woodlands; usually seen on the ground, but sometimes in trees.

Range: North America. Breeds in central Canada, south to northern California, Nevada, northern New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and North Carolina; winters from southeast California and the Ohio and Potomac Valleys to the Gulf Coast and Central Mexico.

The four common black birds—crows, grackles, redwings, and cowbirds—all have sins laid at their doors. Crows and blackbirds are grain-thieves and destroyers of the eggs and young of other birds; redwings have been accused of polygamy and theft; but if judged by human standards, none compare with cowbirds in what might be called moral degeneracy. Cowbirds not only mate promiscuously, but unlike blackbirds, have no regard for their own young. They are like the human mothers who lay their babies on doorsteps, depart, and let others rear them.

It is a well-known fact that the female cowbird always selects the nest of a bird smaller and weaker than herself in which to deposit her egg. Major Bendire lists ninety-one varieties of birds that have been thus outraged, frequent victims being the song sparrow, indigo bunting, parula warbler, yellow warbler, vireo, chipping sparrow, towhee, oven-bird, yellow-breasted chat, and even the tiny blue-gray gnatcatcher. From one to seven cowbirds’ eggs have been found at a time in other birds’ nests, often in the warm center of the nest. Unless the little bird should build a new floor, or abandon her nest entirely, the cowbird egg will hatch first, and the lusty changeling will demand the lion’s share of food and attention. Frequently the other eggs do not hatch; if they do, the young birds often perish with hunger and cold. When young cowbirds have been reared by their patient little foster-parents, they leave their benefactors and join flocks of their disreputable relatives.

In justice it must be said that cowbirds, like all villains, have a redeeming trait—they are great destroyers of weed seeds and insects. Like Cadmus and his band, they “Follow the Cow,” and enjoy the insects that she arouses as she walks about in pastures. When the cow lies down, they, too, pause; they have been known to hop upon her back in friendly fashion. Self-interest prompts them, however, for they know that they may find there a harvest of insects.