Cowbird
a member of the blackbird family. The male has a coffee-colored head, neck and breast of brown, with a glossy black body, lustrous with bluish and greenish reflections. The female is clad in a dark, brownish gray suit. Range, from Texas to Manitoba and eastward. Small flocks of a dozen or fewer individuals follow cattle about the pasture and haunt the milking yard, apparently for the insects they can catch. The cowbird builds no nest. The female leaves the flock, sneaks about, and drops her egg in the nest of a sparrow or other small bird. She leaves it to be hatched and her young to be reared by the unsuspecting dupe. The young cowbird is large, greedy, and selfish, frequently shouldering the rightful occupants out of the nest. When well grown it leaves its drudging foster mother and joins those of its own kind. For the characteristics of an English bird of another family, but with similar habits, see CUCKOO.
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Cowboys
in the American Revolution, a band of American Tories who infested the neutral ground of Westchester county, N. Y., robbed the Whigs and Loyalists, and made a specialty of stealing cattle. A similar band of marauders on the British side received the name of " Skinners." The word cowboys is now used to designate the men who have charge of the cattle on the vast ranges in the W. and S. W. of the United States. Many of them were enlisted in two regiments of cavalry for the war with Spain , and, under the popular name of "Rough Riders ," greatly distinguished themselves in the early part of the campaign against Santiago, in Cuba.
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Cowdray
WEETMAN DICKINSON PEARSON, Viscount, a British capitalist, born in 1856. He contested Colchester for Parliament in 1892, and was elected for that city as a liberal in 1895, representing it till 1910. He was made a baronet in 1894, baron in 1910, and viscount in 1916. He was largely instrumental in building up the oil inter- During the ests of S. Pearson and Son, Ltd., of which he was president. Di war he was President of the Air Board. He was High Steward of Colchester, and in 1918 was elected Rector of the University of Aberdeen.
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Cowes
a British seaport on the N. coast of the Isle of Wight. It is built on both sides of the river Medina, dividing it into two towns, East and West Cowes. The town has an excellent harbor, is much frequented for watering ships, and is the headquarters of the Royal Yacht Club, and, moreover, a place of very fashionable resort, not only in the season, but for the greater part of the year. The famous Cowes Regatta is held there annually in August. Pop. about 15,000.
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Cowles
WILLIAM SHEFFIELD, an American rear-admiral, born in Farmington, Conn., in 1846. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1867, and rising through the various grades, became lieutenant-commander in 1892, commander in 1899, captain in 1902, and rear-admiral in 1908. Besides seeing service in all the principal stations, he acted as naval attaché at London, and as naval aide to the Secretary ary of the Navy. He was chief of the Bureau of Equip ment, and a member of the Board of Construction in 1906. In 1908 he retired from active service. He was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1916, and during the World War served as an officer of the Home Guard of Connecticut.
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Cowley
ABRAHAM, an English poet and essayist; born in London ondon in 1618. Well educated and high in royal favor, he was a fashionable and fortunate poet till the Civil War made havoc of royal favorites. His volumes, "The Mistress," "Poems," various Vergilian elegies and anacreontic love songs, and his essays, were set in the first rank by contemporaries. The first collection of his works, in one volume, appeared in 1668. He died in Chertsey, Surrey, July 28, 1667. COW PARSNIP (so called because the plant is good fodder for cows), Heracleum sphondylium, or any other species of the genus.
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Cowpens
a battlefield near the northern border of South Carolina , not far from King's Mountain. It was covered with timber and undergrowth. General Morgan, with 900 men, January 17, 1781, took position on two knolls, with his rear on the Broad River so that his militia could not run away. Tarleton, the famous cavalry commander of Cornwallis, attacked with 1,100 men. The American militia deployed in front, used their rifles with good effect, and drew away into shelter. Tarleton, thinking the day was his, sounded a charge straight for the river. He was met by a central force of American riflemen, good for a squirrel's head at a hundred paces. The militia under Andrew Pickens reformed in shelter of a hill and fell on one flank; the American cavalry under William Washington fell on the other. Altogether they made short work of the British. Two hundred and seventy were killed and wounded; 600 were taken prisoners; and over 1,000 muskets were captured. Only twelve Americans were killed. Tarleton fled with a handful of followers. The defeat, coming so soon after King's Mountain, was a severe blow to Cornwallis, and encouraged the American patriots greatly. See Cornwallis
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Cowper
WILLIAM, an English poet; born in Berkhampstead, Nov. 15, 1731; was the great-nephew of the Lord- Chancellor Cowper. After completing his education, his family procured him the place of clerk to the House of Lords, but his nervousness and constitutional timidity were such that he was obliged to resign it. He now fell into so terrible a state of nervous debility that he was for some time placed in the lunatic asylum of Dr. Cotton. The skill and humanity of that gentleman restored him, and he retired to Huntingdon. Here he became acquainted with the family of the Unwins; and after Mr. Unwin's death he removed with Mrs. Unwin to Olney, Buckinghamshire. His natural melancholy colored his religious views and feelings, and he fell ofter. into the most painful despondency, but continued to write. In addition to translating Homer, he wrote "The Task," the best of all of his poems; "Tirocinium"; a host of smaller works; and his correspondence exhibits him as one of the most elegant of English letter-writers. He died in Norfolk, April 25, 1800.
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