340 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Toes two in front, two behind; tail of long, soft feathers, much graduated. 



Adult: Upper mandible mainly black, its edges and most of the lower mandible yellow; 

 entire upper parts brownish gray or olive gray, often with a bronzy luster; under parts 

 pure wliite; inner webs of most of the primaries rufous or cinnamon; middle tail-feathers 

 like the back, the rest black with abrupt and broad white tips. Young: Similar, but 

 feathers of upper parts usually with rusty or asiiy tips, and tail-feathers with smaller and 

 less abrupt white patches. 



Length 11 to 12.70 inches; wing 5.40 to 5.80; tail 6 to 6.15. 



162. Black-billed Cuckoo. Coccyzus ery hropthalmus (Wih.). (388) 



Synonyms: Rain Crow, Kow-Kow. — Cuculus erythroi)lithalmus, Wils., 1811, and 

 authors generally. 



Figure 86. 



So similar to the Yellow-billed Cuckoo in appearance, habits and note 

 that the two are very generally confused. The present species shows no 

 yellow on the bill, which is nearly black, has a circle of bare red skin about 

 the eye, little or no cinnamon in the wing, and the outer tail-feathers only 

 lightly tipped with white. (Compare figures 84 and 86.) 



Distribution. — Eastern North America, west to the Rocky Mountains, 

 breeding north to Labrador, Manitoba and eastern Assiniboia; south, in 

 winter, to the West Indies and the valley of the Amazon. 



In Michigan the Black-billed Cuckoo has nearly the same distribution 

 as the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, except that it is equally abundant all over 

 the state, whereas the Yellow-billed - _______ .;.=^ 



species is apparently less common - 



in the northern half. The two ^ 



species are also so similar in general _^.^^"- - '"^^7^ 



habits that most of what has been -^lM^ 



written in the preceding pages is Fig. 8i>. i au oi jMa< k-tniim ( uekoo. 



applicable to the present bird. It From Hoffmann's Guide. 



arrives from the south at about the Courtesy of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



same time, nests in much the same way and at the same time, and 

 moves southward again in the fall together with the Yellow-billed species. 



Although a few field naturalists profess to be able to discriminate the 

 notes of the two species, most good observers agree that this is impossible. 

 Bendire says that it is impossible to distinguish its call notes positively 

 from those of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and Mr. E. P. Bicknell, one of 

 our best authorities on the notes of birds, states that he has been unable 

 to find any constant differences. The nests of the two species are likewise 

 extremely similar, but the Black-billed is the smaller bird and lays the 

 smaller egg; moreover the eggs average deeper in color, the shade being 

 described by Ridgway as glaucous-green or verditer-blue. They average 

 1.11 by .78 inches, and usually present the peculiar mottled appearance 

 already mentioned under the preceding species. 



This bird has been charged with robbing the nests of other birds, precisely 

 as in the case of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and although the charge lacks 

 recent substantiation there may be some truth in the accusation. On the 

 other hand, it is equally destructive to injurious insects, on which it feeds 

 constantly and voraciously, consuming immense numbers of hairy cater- 

 pillars, bugs, beetles, grasshoppers and other injurious species. A single 



