Page:Notes on the Ornithology of Southern Texas.djvu/17

132 and M. ceneus gather in flocks by themselves, and wait for their victims to build. The males have now a variety of notes, somewhat resembling those of the common Oowbird, but more harsh. During the day they scatter over the surrounding country in little companies of one or two females and half a dozen males, returning at nightfall to the vicinity of the picket lines. While the females are feeding or resting in the shade of a bush, the males are eagerly paying their addresses by puffing out their feathers, as above noted, strutting up and down, and nodding and bowing in a very odd manner. Every now and then one of the males rises in the air, and, poising himself two or three feet above the female, flutters for a minute or two, following her if she moves away, and then descends to resume his puffing and bowing. This habit of fluttering in the air was what first attracted my attention to the species. In other respects their habits seem to be like those of the eastern Gowbird.

My first egg of M. ceneus was taken May 14, 1877, [ ] in a Cardinal's nest. A few days before this a soldier brought me a similar egg saying he found it in a Scissor-taiPs (Milvulus) nest ; not recognizing it at the time, I paid little attention to him, and did not keep the egg. I soon found several others, and have taken in all twenty-two specimens the past season. All but two of these were found in nests of the Bullock's, Hooded, and small Orchard (2. yar. affinis) Orioles. It is a curious fact that although Yellow- breasted Chats and Red-winged Blackbirds breed abundantly in places most frequented by these Cowbirds, I have but once found the latter's egg in a Chat's nest, and never in a Red-wing's, though 1 have looked in very many of them.[ ] Perhaps they feel that the line should be drawn somewhere, and select their cousins the Blackbirds as coming within it ; the Dwarf Cowbirds are not troubled by this scruple, however. Several of these parasitic eggs were found under interesting conditions. On six occasions I have found an egg of both Cowbirds in the same nest; in four of these there were eggs of the rightful owner, who was sitting; in the other two the Cowbirds' eggs were alone in the nests, which were deserted : but I have known the Hooded Oriole to sit on an egg of M. ceneus which was on the point of hatching when found; how its own disappeared I cannot say. Once two eggs of ceneus were found in a nest of the small Orchard Oriole (var. affinis). Twice I have seen a broken egg of ceneus under nests of Bullock's Oriole on which the owner was sitting.

" Early in June a nest of the Hooded Oriole was found with four eggs and one of M. ceneus, all of which I removed, leaving the nest. Happening to pass by it a few days later, I looked in, and to my surprise found two eggs of ceneus, which were taken : these were so unlike that