71 

 CUCKOOS. 



Cuckoos. These birds do not seem to be very -well known in onr Province, 

 though we have two species, one of which is not common. They are known as 

 the Black-billed Cuckoo and the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Both of them are slim 

 birds, about twelve inches in length, of an olive-brown color above, and white 

 beneath. The Yellow-billed may be distinguished from its relative by the light 

 chestnut color of the inner webs or part of the wing feathers. This is quite notice- 

 able when the bird is flying. It also has the under mandible of the beak clear yellow. 

 In the Black-billed species, the beak is all black, sometimes showing slight dull 

 yellow marks below. Although the birds themselves are not known, most residents 

 of the country must have noticed the loud harsh notes of "T^ow, kow^' uttered by 

 them, most frequently heard before and during rain, by reason of which the birds 

 are in some localities called "rain crows." 



The well-known Cuckoo of Europe has the bad habit of laying its eggs in 

 the nests of other birds, but although 1 have heard our birds charged with the 

 same thing, I have never yet com.e across an instance of it, but have always found 

 their nesting habits to be quite orthodox, though the nest they build can hardly be 

 considered a model of bird architecture. 



These two species of birds are the only ones that to my knowledge habitually 

 eat hairy caterpillars, and of these noxious insects they must destroy a large quan- 

 tity, an examination of their stomachs generally showing a considerable number 

 of them. On one occasion I found the stomach of a Black-billed Cuckoo packed 

 with the spiny caterpillar of Vanessa antiopa, an insect that feeds in colonies and 

 does much damage to the elm and willow trees. And as many as two hundred and 

 fifty tent caterpillars have been found in the stomach of a Cuckoo. 



The habits of the two Cuckoos are much alike; the only difference I have 

 noticed is that the Yellow-billed species seems to prefer the upper branches of tall 

 trees in which to obtain its food, while the Black-billed resorts more to the orchard 

 trees and shrubbery. I have not found any evidence of habitual fruit- eating against 

 either of them, so that from an economic standpoint they must be considered as 

 purely beneficial, even if they do occasionally deposit an es^g: in the nest of another 

 bird. 



As an illustration of the number of caterpillars devoured hy these Cuckoos, 

 Chapman says that a Yellow-billed Cuckoo shot by him at six o'clock one morn- 

 ing had the partially digested remains of forty-three tent caterpillars in its 

 stomach. 



An examination of the stomachs of sixteen Black-billed Cuckoos by the Bio- 

 logical survey of the Department of Agriculture at Washington showed the remains 

 of three hundred and twenty-eight caterpillars, eleven beetles, fifteen grasshoppers, 

 sixty-three saw-flies, three stink bugs, and four spiders. In all probability more 

 individuals than these were represented, but their remains were too badly broken 

 for recognition. Most of the caterpillars were hairy and many of them belonged 

 to a genus that lives in colonies and feeds on the leaves of trees, including the 

 apple. One stomach was filled with larvae of a caterpillar belonging to the same 

 genus as the tent caterpillar and possibly to that species. Other larvfe were those 

 of large moths for which this bird seems to have a special fondness. The beetles 

 were for the most part Click beetles (the larva?, of which are wireworms) and weevils 

 with a few June beetles and some others. 



Of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo twenty-one stomachs were examined. The con- 

 tents consisted of three hundred and fifty-five caterpillars, eighteen beetles, twenty- 



