YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO 117 



the nest, neither egg hatched. Two long hot months 

 with no young birds ! No parasitical traits there ! 



These birds are accused of being egg-suckers, but 

 I doubt it; they are also accused of doing much harm 

 by destroying the eggs of other birds, and are frequently 

 called ''Rain Crows" and unjustly denounced as false 

 weather prophets, when, in the imagination of the lay- 

 man, the birds' "couk! couk!" fails to bring a down- 

 pour. The Cuckoo call, like that of other birds, is given 

 at any and all times and is frequently heard during the 

 night. 



It is so universally believed. that the Cuckoo never 

 builds a home, but lays its eggs in other birds' nests, 

 that one of the big daily papers of Kansas City, Mis- 

 souri, my home city, offered one thousand dollars reward 

 to any man, woman or child who would show the editor 

 a Cuckoo's nest. At the time I was making daily visits 

 and picturing the family and the doings of a pair of 

 Cuckoos, in their own home, within the city limits. 



In an old abandoned plum and apple orchard I had 

 found a regular land bird-nesting rookery, including 

 many nests of the Mourning Doves, Catbirds, Mocking- 

 birds, Flickers, Bronze Grackles and, along with them, 

 one Yellow-billed Cukcoo 's nest. It was on a horizontal 

 limb of an apple tree, about fifteen feet from the ground. 

 The nest, as usual, was a flimsy, shallow affair of small 

 sticks, containing two bluish-green or whitish eggs. The 

 birds were incubating and were easily approached, but 

 the location of the nest made it difficult to get a good pic- 

 ture, for the limb kept swaying with every breeze. How- 

 ever, I anchored the camera within a few feet of it and 

 with line to shutter proceeded to picture the old birds 

 at their activities. I kept this up for several days ; then 

 one egg hatched. The female came and perched within 

 five feet of the nest for half an hour, all the while holding 

 in her black and yellow mandibles a big caterpillar. The 

 male now put in his appearance, gave his assurance call, 

 and the female flew to the nest to feed the young bird. 

 This youngster, when only two days old, was four times 

 as large as the unhatched egg in the nest by its side. It 

 was very black-skinned and was an ugly thing, with 



