In Europe there is also a bird called the Cuckoo. It is larger than our bird 

 by that name and, besides, is a very pretty singer. It is not shy ; so a great many 

 people are acquainted with its habits. " It was well known when the Bible was 

 written and you can find its name in the list of animals which the Children of 

 Israel were forbidden to eat. Shakespeare, in one of his plays, tells us about the 

 Cuckoo's young. Some of the English poets speak of its singing. 



Of all the tales told of the English birds, the one relating to the nesting 

 habits of the Cuckoo must reflect the least credit on the accused. 



In the spring when nesting time for birds arrives, it does not build a nest 

 for itself, but quietly steals away and deposits its eggs secretly in the nests of 

 other birds. There the eggs are incubated and the young are reared by the 

 foster parents. While the Cuckoo thus saves itself the labor of building a nest 

 and the anxiety of caring for the )'0ung, it has gained an unpleasant notoriety, 

 possessed by few other birds. In this country the black Cowbird has the same 

 habit. 



Our Yellow-billed Cuckoo has learned the art of nest building but poorly, 

 the cradle in which the young are reared .being little more than a mere platform 

 of twigs. Indeed, so thin and frail a structure is it that the eggs can often be 

 counted through the nest from beneath. It is usually placed on some sheltering 

 limb or among thick vines in hedge rows, along streams and in orchards or 

 groves. The eggs are nearly an inch and a quarter long and are about three- 

 fourths as wide. They vary from two to four in number and their color is 

 greenish blue. Many birds lay their eggs, one each day, with great regularity 

 until the full number has been reached. The Cuckoo, however, often allows a 

 few days to pass after she begins setting on some of the eggs before the others 

 are deposited. Thus there are sometimes found a young bird, an incubated egg 

 and a freshly laid egg, all in the same nest. 



Among the branches of our fruit trees we may sometimes see large webs 

 which have been made by the tent-caterpillars. An invading host seems to have 

 come and pitched its tents among the boughs on all sides. These caterpillars 

 are quite destructive to trees, and the Cuckoos do us a great favor by coming 

 often to raid the encampment. They pull the little hairy intruders out of their 

 tents by hundreds and eat them. So many are eaten by these birds their stomachs 

 are often found to be thickly coated with a layer of caterpillar hairs. Cuckoos 

 also eat grasshoppers and different kinds of flies. 



In some parts of the United States, especially in the South, the surface of 

 the country is quite level and the soil is of sand. There are found here large 

 tracts of pine woodland, sometimes with no other kinds of trees growing near. 

 In these pine forests the Cuckoos are seldom seen ; and in such regions, if we 

 wish to find them, we must search by the lakes and along the streams where 

 other kinds of trees are growing, or else among the shade trees of the town. 



The Bureau of Biological Survey of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture has for many years been studying the feeding habits of wild birds with 



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