Cowbird

Here we have an avian example of the ethics which the present human generation is trying to imitate.

COWBIRDS are polygamous, polyandrous and promiscuous: no homes, no cares, few troubles — a devil-may-care existence but scarcely one which tends toward advance, for without self-control the grade is downward. Forbush says courtship is a happy-go-lucky affair with results of the union deposited in another bird's nest, instead of on a doorstep!

This foisting is usually done on smaller birds where the Cowbird egg hatches first and often crowds the rightful youngsters out of their home to death by a fall or starvation. Providence may mark the Sparrow's fall but seems uninterested in a Vireo's or Warbler's demise via the Cowbird plague.