"Does this hateful Cowbird over sing?" asked Dodo.

"Sometimes in spring he tries to; he squeaks a few notes, and makes
faces, struggling, choking, wheezing, as if he had swallowed a beetle
with hooks on its legs and was in great pain. It is a most startling
noise, but it certainly is not musical, though perhaps it pleases the
Cowbird ladies; for if they have such bad taste in other ways, they
doubtless like such harsh and inharmonious sounds."

"I don't see what makes them act so," said Rap. "I thought birds had to
build nests, or have a hole or a bit of ground or rock of their
own--that it was a law."

"So it is, my boy; but the Cowbird is one of the exceptions I told you
about; and I am glad to say there are very few."


The Cowbird

Length about seven and a half inches.

Male: very glossy black, excepting the head and neck, which are shiny
dark brown like burnt coffee.

Female: dusky brown, the lower parts lighter than the upper.

A Citizen of the entire United States.

A Ground Gleaner and a Weed Warrior, to some extent, but a bad neighbor,
a worse parent, a homeless vagabond, and an outlaw in Birdland.