ST. DOMINGO CUCKOO. 557 



ceding, also consists of hairy caterpillars, beetles, and 

 other insects, and even minute shell-fish. They also, 

 like many birds of other orders, swallow gravel to assist 

 digestion. 



They usually retire into the woods to breed, beinor 

 less familiar than the former, choosing an evergreen bush 

 or sappling for the site of the nest, which is made of 

 twigs, pretty well put together, but still little more than 

 a concave flooring, and lined with moss occasionally, and 

 withered catkins of the hickory. The eggs are smaller, 

 and 3 to 5 in number, of a bluish-green. The female 

 sits very close on the nest, admitting a near approach 

 before flying ; the young, before acquiring their feathers, 

 are of an uniform bright greyish-blue ; at a little distance 

 from the nest the male keeps up the usual rattling call of 

 hoio how kow koio, the note increasing in loudness and quick- 

 ness ; sometimes the call seems like M' kh' kk' kh' 'kh 

 'kah, the notes growing louder and running together like 

 those of the Yellow-winged Woodpecker. This species 

 has also, before rain, a peculiar call, in a raucous guttural 

 voice like orrattoioo, or loorratfotoo. This species is 

 less timorous than the Yellow-billed kind, and near the 

 nest with young, I have observed the parent compos- 

 edly sit and plume itself for a considerable time without 

 showing any alarm at my presence. This bird is also 

 equally addicted to the practice of sucking birds' eggs. 

 Indeed, one which I saw last summer, kept up for hours 

 a constant watch after the eggs of a Robin sitting in 

 an apple tree, who with her mate, kept up a running 

 fight with the Cuckoo for two days in succession. 



The Black-billed species is about 12*^ inches long. The 2 central 

 tail-feathers unspotted, the white terminal spots on the rest smaller 

 and bordered with dusky. Inner lining, and inner webs of the wing 

 quills, of a delicate cream-color. Wings pointed, the 1st primary 

 yjav short, the 2d a little more than ^ an inch shorter than the 3d, 

 47* 



