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136
My Studio Neighbors
·
W. Hamilton Gibson
23
The
victims
of
the
cow-bird
are
usually,
as
in
this
instance,
birds
of
much
smaller
size,
the
fly-catchers,
the
sparrows,
warblers,
and
vireos,
though
she
occasionally
imposes
on
larger
species,
such
as
the
orioles
and
the
thrushes.
The
following
are
among
its
most
frequent
dupes,
given
somewhat
in
the
order
of
the
bird's
apparent
choice:
song-sparrow,
field-sparrow,
yellow
warbler,
chipping-sparrow,
other
sparrows,
Maryland
yellow-throat,
yellow-breasted
chat,
vireos,
worm-eating
warbler,
indigo-bird,
least-flycatcher,
bluebird,
Acadian
flycatcher,
Canada
flycatcher,
oven-bird,
king-bird,
cat-bird,
phoebe,
Wilson's
thrush,
chewink,
and
wood-thrush.
But
one
egg
is
usually
deposited
in
a
single
nest;
the
presence
of
two
eggs
probably
indicates,
as
in
the
case
of
the
European
cuckoo,
the
visits
of
two
cow-birds
rather
than
a
second
visit
from
the
same
individual--the
presence
of
two
cow-bird
chicks
of
equal
size
being
rather
a
proof
of
this
than
otherwise,
in
that
kind
Nature
would
seem
to
have
accommodated
the
bird
with
an
exceptional
physiological
resource,
which
matures
its
eggs
at
intervals
of
three
or
more
days,
as
against
the
daily
oviposition
of
its
dupes,
thus
giving
it
plenty
of
time
to
make
its
search
and
take
its
pick
among
the
bird-homes.
Whether
the
process
of
evolution
has
similarly
equipped
our
cow-bird
I
am
not
aware;
but
the
vicious
habits
of
the
two
birds
are
so
identical
that
the
same
accommodating
functional
conditions
might
reasonably
be
expected.
It
is,
indeed,
an
interesting
fact
well
known
to
ornithologists
that
our
own
American
cuckoos,
both
the
yellow-billed
and
black-billed,
although
rudimentary
nest-builders,
still
retain
the
same
exceptional
interval
in
their
egg-laying
as
do
their
foreign
namesake.
The
eggs
are
laid
from
four
days
to
a
week
apart,
instead
of
daily,
as
with
most
birds,
their
period
of
perilous
nidification
on
that
haphazard
apology
of
a
nest
being
thus
possibly
prolonged
to
six
weeks.
Thus
we
find,
in
consequence,
the
anomalous
spectacle
of
the
egg
and
full-grown
chick,
and
perhaps
one
or
two
fledglings
of
intermediate
stages
of
growth,
scattered
about
at
once,
helter-skelter,
in
the
same
nest.
Only
two
years
ago
I
discovered
such
a
nest
not
a
hundred
feet
from
my
house,
containing
one
chick
about
two
days
old,
another
almost
full-fledged,
while
a
fresh-broken
egg
lay
upon
the
ground
beneath.
Such
a
household
condition
would
seem
rather
demoralizing
to
the
cares
of
incubation,
and
doubtless
the
addled
or
ousted
egg
is
a
frequent
episode
in
our
cuckoo's
experience.
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