Widmami — .4 Preliminary Catalog 0/ the Birds of Missouri. 117 



central Nebraska, Kansas, Indian Territory and Oklahoma. 

 In winter to Costa Rica and the West Indies. 



The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is one of the best distributed sum- 

 mer residents in Missouri. It is not partial to any one region, 

 though most numerous in the southeast, where it arrives as early 

 as April 25. For the _rest of the state the first week in May is 

 the usual time, though in some years a few have appeared, even 

 in the northern part of the state, during the last days of April, 

 while in backward seasons none have been seen until the second 

 week in May. By the middle of May they become more con- 

 spicuous, mating begins and transient visitants swell their num- 

 bers for a few days. As they do not call much during daytime 

 the first few days after arrival, the very first are easily overlooked, 

 but betray their presence by calls before dawn of day. Cuckoos 

 are very retiring during the breeding season until the young 

 are fully fledged, when they lay off their reserve and become 

 familiar visitors to our shade trees, even in frequented streets 

 and gardens. About the middle of September the species is for 

 a few days more prominent than usual, their numbers being 

 reinforced by guests from farther north, but not many are left 

 after September 25, though the first week in October is usually 

 the time when the very last ones are noted south of the Missouri 

 River. June 4, 1881, the writer found within the city limits 

 of St. Louis an egg of this species in the nest of a Catbird and 

 another egg near by in the nest of a Black-billed Cuckoo. There 

 are some, but not many, instances known of the American 

 Cuckoo laying in the nests of other birds, as, unlike the Euro- 

 pean Cuckoo, our Cuckoo makes its own nest, hatches its own 

 eggs and rears its own young. But the nest of our Cuckoo is 

 such a frail structure that a strong wind storm will blow it from 

 its support unless the bird be setting. This may happen before 

 the last of the eggs are laid, and the bird being pressed may be 

 forced to take recourse in other birds' nests. Though cuckoos' 

 eggs have repeatedly been found in the nests of Robins and 

 Catbirds, also in those of the Thrasher, Woodthrush, Cedarbird, 

 Redbird and Rose-breastecl Grosbeak, there is no record of any 

 of those birds having been seen caring for young Cuckoos. 



*388. CoccYZus ERYTHROPHTHALMus(Wils.). Black-billcd Cuc- 

 koo. 



Coccygus erythrophthalmus. Cuculus erythrophthabnuji. Raincrow. 



Geog. Dist. — Eastern North America, breeding from the 

 mountainous part of Georgia north to Newfoundland and south- 



