"Cowbird" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... suspected of being promiscuously polygamous. Suspicion on this point is heightened by the fact that it never has a nest even of the most humble character, and shuns absolutely all the ordinary dangers and responsibilities of parentage. We call this seemingly unnatural creature the Cowbird, probably because it is often seen feeding in pastures {57} among cattle, where it captures many insects disturbed into activity by the movements ...
— The Bird Study Book • Thomas Gilbert Pearson
... often fly off for milkweed fibres and silk to make a new nest right on top of the first one, shutting the hateful egg out of sight underneath. Then they begin housekeeping anew, in a two-storied nest like this one, living in the upper story, and keeping the Cowbird's egg locked up in the basement, where no warmth from their bodies can reach it; and so it never hatches. If a second Cowbird's egg is laid, in the new upper story of the nest, the Warblers generally abandon their home in despair, and choose a new nesting place; but ...
— Citizen Bird • Mabel Osgood Wright and Elliott Coues |
