YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO, OR RAIN-CROW. 555 



cock-chaffer*, Ccuribi, and other kinds of insects, as well 

 as various sorts of berries ; but their worst propensity 

 is the parasitic habit of sucking the eggs of other birds, 

 thus spreading ruin and dismay wherever they approach. 

 They hatch several broods in a season, and I have 

 seen a nest with eggs in it as late as the 28th of August ! 

 though they usually take their departure in some part of 

 the month of September. Considering the time they are 

 engaged in breeding, they raise but few young, appearing 

 to be improvident nurses, and bad nest-makers, so that 

 a considerable part of their progeny are either never 

 hatched, or perish soon after ; a fortunate balance to check 

 the increase of their numbers, and circumscribe the 

 otherwise evil of their existence. They are greatly at- 

 tached to places where small birds resort, for the sake 

 of sucking their ecras ; and I have found it difficult at 

 times to eject them, as when their nests are robbed, 

 without much concern, they commence again in the same 

 vicinity, but adding caution to their operations, in pro- 

 portion to the persecution they meet with ; in this way, 

 instead of their exposing the nest in some low bush, I have, 

 with difficulty, met with one, at last, in a tall larch more 

 than 50 feet from the ground. When wholly routed, the 

 male kept up a mournful kow koio kow for several days, 

 appearing now sensible by experience of the misery of 

 his own predatory practices. 



Careless in providing comfort for their progeny, the 

 American Cuckoo, like that of Europe, seems, at times, 

 inclined to throw the charge of her offspring on other 

 birds. Approaching to this habit, I have found an 

 Qgg of the Cuckoo in the nest of a Cat-Bird ; yet, though 

 the habitation had been usurped, the intruder prob- 

 ably intended to hatch her own eggs. At another time, 



* Melolontha lanigera . 



