In spite of this naughty fun, the young blackbird was really fond of them. The larks slept on the ground, and at night, when the little fellows settled down on the floor, the red-wing would often leave his perch and cuddle down by them. This must have been for company only, for it was his way to sleep on a perch.
The Cow-Blackbird, or Cowbird, is another one of this branch of the Blackbird Family who is found all over the United States. He is shining blue-black all over, except his head, which is brown. His mate is entirely brown. He is not quite so large as a red-wing, and he too is a walker.
This bird is called cowbird because he is fond of flying about the cows,—not to trouble them, but to eat the insects that torment them,—which is very pleasant for the cows, I am sure.
There is one queer way that cowbirds have, which no one is able to explain. The cowbird mother does not build a nest for her little family. Yet she wants them well cared for. So she goes slyly about and lays her eggs in other birds' nests. She generally chooses the nest of a smaller bird, though she often uses one belonging to a wood thrush.
Most little birds—warblers and finches—accept the charge. They hatch out the strange egg and bring up the young cowbird, who is bigger than themselves. He is so big that he usually smothers the young ones that belong in the nest. So he receives the whole attention of the little mother bird.
Sometimes other birds come to help one who has a young cowbird to feed, and he grows big and strong. When he is full grown he joins a party of other cowbirds, and they go off in a flock by themselves.
Some small birds will not submit to this. When they find a cowbird's egg in their nest, they go away and leave it there, and make a new nest. Or they make a new story, as I told you the yellow warbler does.
The cowbird has a queer little song. It is something like "cluck-see!" and he seems to squeeze it out as if it were hard work to say it.