YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 



RAIN CROW. 



COCCYZUS AMERICANUS. 



Char. Upper mandible and tip of lower, black ; rest of lower mandi* 

 ble and cutting edges of upper, yellow. Upper parts olive, with a slight 

 metallic gloss, tinged with ash toward the bill ; wings tinged with rufous ; 

 middle feathers of tail like back, remainder black tipped with white ; 

 beneath, white or creamy. Length about 12 inches. 



Nest. In a thicket by the side of a stream or on the border of a 

 swamp ; placed in a bush or low tree. A flat, frail affair made of twigs 

 loosely laid, sometimes lined with bark strips or grass. 



Eggs. 2-6 (usually 4) ; pale dull green or bluish green; 1.25 X 0.90. 



The American Cuckoo arrives in the middle and colder 

 States of the Union about the close of April or the first week 

 of May, and proceeds to the north as far as Nova Scotia. 

 It probably winters in Mexico, and individuals pass no farther 

 than the forests of Louisiana. We also met with it in the 

 remote Territory of Oregon. Latham speaks of these birds 

 also as inhabitants of the tropical island of Jamaica. They 

 delight in the shady retirement of the forest, and are equally 

 common in tall thickets and orchards, where, like piratical 

 prowlers, they skulk and hide among the thickest boughs ; and 

 although, unlike the European Cuckoo, they are faithfully paired, 

 yet the pair are seldom seen in the same tree, but, shy and 

 V\^atchful, endeavor to elude everything like close observation. 



