160 YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO 



are hatched without feathers, and remain in the 

 nest several weeks. Audubon says that when 

 they are in the nest the mother, if disturbed, 

 will sometimes fall on the water as if severely 

 wounded, w^iile her mate on a branch above 

 shows his perturbation by jerking his tail, rais- 

 ing his crest, rattling, and flying anxiously back 

 and forth. 



Though shy at the nest, the Kingfisher, if 

 treated with respect, becomes used to the genus 

 homo. At Lake Placid, when moored in a boat 

 alongshore, I have had one perch almost over 

 me, and dive so near that the water spattered my 

 paddle. 



Yellow-billed Cuckoo : Coccyzus americanus. 

 (Fig. 83, p. 161.) 



Upper parts brownish gray, with a slight greenish gloss ; "wings 

 and outer tail feathers black, consiDieuously tipped with white 

 (thumb-marks) ; under parts white ; under mandible yellow. 

 Length, about 125- inches. 



Geographic Distribution. — North America ; breeds from 

 Florida to New Brunswick, and winters in the West Indies and 

 Central America. 



The cry of the ' Rain Crow ' is a familiar coun- 

 try sound, but the bird who makes it is less well 

 known. It is a bird that keeps closely hidden, 

 flying out of one tree or bush only to cross to 

 other cover, and moving so silently and swiftly 

 that it might well escape detection. But it is a 

 bird that every student and lover of the curious 



