196 ANIS, ROAD-RUNNERS, AND CUCKOOS 



Nest. — A slight platform of sticks in trees. Eggs : 2 to 4, bluish green. 

 Food. — Largely caterpillars, but also grasshoppers, potato bugs, and 

 other insects. 



Though an eastern bird, the yellow-billed cuckoo is sometimes 

 found in the cottonwoods bordering irrigation ditches in southern 

 New Mexico. As it moves about in a treetop looking for caterpil- 

 lars, it shows the large white thumb-marks of the under side of its 

 tail, and as it flies down to a fence shows the striking reddish 

 brown of its wings. As a family the cuckoos are little in evidence, 

 bL'ing generally hidden in some thick leafy cover looking for cater- 

 pillars. When they do fly their long slender bodies pass swiftly by 

 in a straight line to disappear in other cover. 



Their presence would often be wholly unknown but for their 

 notes, which, like the peacock's, are considered a sign of rain — rain 

 crows they are commonly called in consequence. They have a 

 variety of notes, the commonest being, as Major Bendire gives it, 

 noo-coo-coo-coo or coic-coio-coiD. In the breeding season a number of 

 males sometimes get together and give a veritable cuckoo concert. 



387a. C a. occidentalis Ridgw. California Cuckoo. 



Adidts. — Upper parts grayish brown, with faint green gloss ; under 

 parts white, grayish across chest ; lower half of hill mainly yellow ; side of 

 head with blackish streak ; tail graduated, middle feathers like back, 

 tipped with black, the rest blue black, with broad white thumb marks on 

 tips ; wing quills mainly rufous on inner webs. Young : like adults, but 

 tail duller, without blue, and white not strikingly contrasted with brown. 

 Length: 12.30-13.50. wing 5.50-6.00, tail 6.10-6.90, bill 1.02-1.08, depth 

 of bill through base .37-.40. 



Distribution. — Western temperate North America, breeding from south- 

 ern British Columbia south to central Tamaulipas and northern Chi- 

 huahua, Mexico ; from the Pacific east over the eastern slope of the Rocky 

 Mountains and western Texas ; migrating to northern Lower California 

 and tablelands of Mexico. 



Nest. — A loose platform of twigs, sometimes lined with leaves, dry 

 grasses, and flower blossoms ; placed usually in willow or mesquite thick- 

 ets, 10 to 15 feet from the ground. Eggs : generally 3 or 4, light greenish 

 blue, unspotted. 



Food. — Caterpillars, black crickets, grasshoppers, and other insects. 



The California cuckoo is in all respects the western counterpart of 

 the yellow-billed, from which it can be told only by size. 



388. Coccyzus erythrophthalmus {Wils.). Black-billed 



Cuckoo. 

 Adults. — Upper parts grayish brown, faintly glossed with green, tail 

 feathers narrowly tipped ivith dull ivhite. preceded 

 by blackish bar ; under parts grayish, fading to 

 white on belly ; bill blackish, naked eyelids 

 bright red in life. Young : above dull brown, 

 Fig. 2o8. with coppery bronzy luster, becoming dull rusty 



