procreant

The procreant instinct of this Molothrus has always seemed so important to me, for many reasons, that I have paid a great deal of attention to it; and the facts, or, at all events, the most salient of them, which I have collected during several years of observation, I propose to append here, classified under different headings so as to avoid confusion and to make it easy for other observers to see at a glance just how much I have learnt.

The mystery of the Bay-wings’ nest twice found containing over the usual complement of eggs is cleared up, and I have now suddenly become acquainted with the procreant instinct of the Screaming Cow-bird.

It is probable, I think, that this species possesses some curious procreant habits, and that more than one female lays in each nest; but owing to the excessive wariness of the bird in a state of nature it is next to impossible to find out anything about it.

I also doubt very much that the bird is ever polygamous, as Azara suspected; but it frequently wastes eggs, and its procreant habits are sometimes very irregular and confusing, as the following case will show:— A flock numbering about sixteen individuals passed the winter in the trees about my home, and in spring scattered about the plantation, screaming and chattering in their usual manner when about to breed.

The male incubates and rears the young; and the procreant habits seem altogether like those of Rhea americana.