Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/206

panionship of the cattle, with whom she appears to be on the most intimate terms.

The cow-bird deposits its eggs indiscriminately among the nests of smaller birds. The blackbird's eggs generally hatch out a day or two before the adopted mother's own eggs, so when the legitimate members of the family do come, it is to find their nest already occupied by the strong, lusty interlopers, who, on account of their superior size and strength, come in for the lion's share of all the food brought to the nest. Thus the innocent parents rear the aliens, while their own young starve. It is really a pitiable sight to see a couple of little greenlets anxiously searching from daybreak till evening for food to fill the capacious crop of one or more young cow blackbirds considerably larger than the greenlets themselves.

As might be expected, the young cow-bird is an inveterate gormandizer, and you cannot supply it with enough food to stop its cries for more. True to its instinct, when its craw is crammed to its utmost extent, the young pauper will still cry for more and open wide its mouth, for fear its foster brothers and sisters should receive some share of the food. The blackbird wastes all it cannot eat, deliberately throwing the food away by a sudden jerk of the head.

Feed young wrens, sparrows, and finches upon chopped worms and the soft parts of grasshoppers. As soon as their bills become hard enough the finches and sparrows may be fed upon bird seed that can be procured at any bird store.

Feed young bobolinks upon the soft parts of grasshoppers, and as they grow older and become inclined to corpulency, do not let them have too much to eat, or they will kill themselves.