254 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



common to both, the voice and delivery are very unlike the 

 robin's : 



Loud and rapid. > 



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I am told that this bird has also a very musical whistling call. 



I found the grossbeaks in Belknap County, N. H., in June, 

 1886, and in St. Lawrence County, N. Y., in June, 1887. 



In their fall migrations they go in flocks, occasionally calling 

 upon the farmers for food, appearing as tame and as much at 

 home as if they had been raised by them. Flocks have passed 

 through northern New Hampshire on their journey south in 

 December, paying leisurely visits to the cider mills for the apple 

 seeds in the cast-off pomace, apparently very little concerned 

 about the cold. 



Black-billed Cuckoo. It is the black-billed cuckoo whose 

 song, with very little merit, has become famous. It must be the 

 low pitch, the solemn manner of delivery, and the quality of tone, 

 that have attracted the attention of the writers ; for there is little 

 variety in the rhythm and the least possible in the melody. The 

 rather doleful, straightforward repetition of the singer's name is 

 not heard every day ; the cuckoo, too, has his moods. 



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Cuek - oo, cuck - oo, cuek - oo coo, cuck - oo, cuck - oo 



coo, 



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cuck - oo coo, cuck - oo, cuck - oo coo, cuck - oo. 



I have heard this bird nearly every summer of my life, and 

 never any departure from the old, monotonous strain, until re- 

 cently (1888). Early one June morning, sultry and warm, a bird 

 was exercising his voice in a manner that set me on the alert; it 

 was the voice of a cuckoo, but not the cuckoo's song : 



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