220 Birds of Colorado 



are unspotted and measure ri9 x '90. Occasionally 

 this Cuckoo shows a tendency to parasitism. Eggs 

 have been known to have been dropped in the nests 

 of other birds, most often perhaps in the nest of the 

 Black-billed Cuckoo. 



California Cuckoo. Coccyzus americanus occidentalis. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 387a. 



Description. — Larger than C. americanus, with a proportionally larger 

 and stouter bill; wing 5-84 ; tail 6-59 ; culmen 1'05. 



Distribution. — Western North America from British Coluntbia south 

 to Lower California, New Mexico, and the tablelands of Mexico proper. 



Cooke refers the Yellow-billed Cuckoo of Colorado to this subspecies, 

 but most of the Colorado examples which I have seen appear to be nearer 

 the eastern race. In the State Historical Collection at Denver there 

 are two specimens, obtained in Denver, which perhaps might be referred 

 to the larger-billed fonn, while others taken in Yimaa are certainly 

 smaller, and should more properly be referred to the eastern race. 



Black-billed Cuckoo. Coccyzus erythropthalmus. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 388— Colorado Records — Bendire 92, p. 27 ; 

 Cooke 94, p. 183 ; 97, p. 82 ; H. G. Smith 05, p. 82. 



Description. — Above greyish-brown with a slight bronzy lustre, no 

 rufous on the wings, tail-feathers all like the back, subterminally dusky, 

 terminally obscurely white ; below whit'e ; iris brown, bare skin round 

 the eye red, bill black, sometimes a trace of yellow on the lower man- 

 dible ; legs plumbeous. Length 11 -5 ; wing 5-4 ; tail 6'15 ; culmen -85 ; 

 tarsus -9. Young birds have the feathers of the upper-parts edged 

 with whitish. 



Distribution. — Breeding in eastern North America from Manitoba, 

 Labrador and Nova Scotia, south to the Gulf States ; south in winter 

 to the West Indies, Central America and northern South America. 



The Black-billed Cuckoo is even rarer in Colorado than the Yellow- 

 billed. It is probably a summer resident, but has not yet been found 

 nesting, and has hitherto only been met with in the north-eastern plains 

 counties. An example now mounted in the Museum at Fort CoUins 

 was collected by Breninger on Jime 11th. W. G. Smith and Osburn 

 found it rare at Loveland, but believed that it nested there, and more 

 recently H. G. Smith obtained a single example in Jackson's canon, 

 near Wray, on May 21st, 1904. 



Habits. — ^The Black-billed Cuckoo hardly differs from 

 the Yellow-billed Cuckoo in this respect. 



