YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO 227 



notes like the syllables kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk-kyow-kyoiv-kyow. 

 These the Black-billed introduces by a gurgling note ; its 

 notes, moreover, are more liquid, less wooden than those of 

 the Yellow-billed. Besides these prolonged calls each species 

 has a shorter call : that of the Black-billed sounds like the 

 syllables kuk-kuk, or kuk-kuk-kuk, the double, triple, or 

 sometimes quadruple combinations being repeated often 

 many times ; the corresponding notes of the Yellow-billed 

 are single, low, dove-like notes, coo, coo, coo, coo. 



The Black-billed Cuckoo, when seen at short range, may 

 be distinguished by the black under mandible, by the rim 

 of bare red skin about the eye, or by the small white tips 

 on the dusky (not black) tail-feathers. It has a habit when 

 alarmed or excited of raising its long tail slowly. 



Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Coccyzus americanus 



12.20 



Ad. — Upper parts brown ; under parts white ; lower mandible 

 yellow, except the tip, which is black; tail long, rounded, the three 

 outer blackish tail-feathers ending in large white spots ; a broad 

 area of cinnamon showing in the wings when the bird flies. 



Nest, of sticks, loosely constructed, in a low tree or bush, or in 

 a dense mass of vines. Eggs, pale greenish-blue. 



The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is a summer resident of New 

 York and New England, rarely occurring beyond the north- 

 ern boundary .„_ 

 of Massachu- 

 setts. It ar- 

 rives in the 

 first half of 



May, and occasionally lingers late into September. In the 

 hilly portion of central New England it is rare, occurring in 

 Berkshire County only along the rivers and at the outlets 

 of lakes. In eastern Massachusetts and about New York 

 this and the preceding species are often equally common. 



Fig. 70. Tail of Yellow-billed Cuckoo 



