YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 431, 



that so commonly infest the apple-trees, and live in commu- 

 nities within a common silky web. They also devour the large 

 yellow cockchafer, Carabi, and other kinds of insects, as well 

 as various sorts of berries ; but their worst propensity is the 

 parasitic habit of sucking the eggs of other birds, thus spread- 

 ing ruin and dismay wherever they approach. They hatch 

 several broods in a season, and I have seen a nest with eggs in 

 it as late as the 28th of August ! — though they usually take their 

 departure in some part of the month of September. Consid- 

 ering the time they are engaged in breeding, they raise but few 

 young, appearing to be improvident nurses and bad nest- 

 makers, so that a considerable part of their progeny are either 

 never hatched, or perish soon after. These birds are greatly 

 attached to places where small birds resort, for the sake of 

 sucking their eggs ; and I have found it difficult at times to 

 eject them, as when their nests are robbed, without much con- 

 cern they commence again in the same vicinity, but adding 

 caution to their operations in proportion to the persecution 

 they meet with. In this way, instead of their exposing the 

 nest in some low bush, I have with difficulty met with one at 

 least in a tall larch, more than fifty feet from the ground. 

 When wholly routed, the male kept up a mournful koto kow 

 kow for several days, appearing now sensible by experience of 

 his own predatory practices. 



Careless in providing comfort for her progeny, the Amer- 

 ican Cuckoo, like that of Europe, seems at times inclined to 

 throw the charge of her offspring on other birds. Approach- 

 ing to this habit, I have found an egg of the Cuckoo in the 

 nest of a Catbird ; yet though the habitation was usurped, the 

 intruder probably intended to hatch her own eggs. At another 

 time, on the 15th of June, 1830, I saw a Robin's nest with two 

 eggs in it indented and penetrated by the bill of a bird, and 

 the egg of a Cuckoo deposited in the same nest. Both 

 birds forsook the premises, so that the object of this forcible 

 entry was not ascertained, — though the mere appropriation 

 of the nest would seem to have been the intention of the 

 Cuckoo. 



