72 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



other ill a small larch, in the midst of an extensive willow thicket, 

 half a foot from the trunk of the tree on a branch where two branch- 

 lets were attached. One of the lowest two was not over a foot above 

 ground, among weeds 2 feet high ; the nest was supported by a small 

 dead branch that had fallen from a tree and lay hidden in the weeds. 

 Others were at intermediate heights in more normal situations. The 

 nest in the small larch tree he describes as made first of some cottony 

 seed pods (ripened willow catkins), then a main structure of woody 

 twigs, and lined with finer twigs, a few grasses and bits of the 

 cottony seed pods; two tufts of dry grass, with roots attached, were 

 at opposite sides of the rim. 

 Major Bendire (1895) says: 



The nests of the Black-billed Cuckoo appear to be slightly better built than 

 those of the Yellow-billed species ; the platform is usually constructed of finer 

 twigs, the soft inner bark of cedar, fine rootlets, weed stems, etc., and there is 

 generally more lining. This consists of the aments of oak, white and black 

 ash, and maple, willow catkins, and the flowers of the cudweed or everlasting 

 iChiaphaliuni), dried leaves, and similar materials. The majority of the nests 

 are placed in rather low situations, mostly not over 6 feet from the ground, on 

 horizontal limbs of bushy evergreens, pines, cedars, and hemlocks, or in decidu- 

 ous trees and shrubs, such as the box elder, chestnut, thorn apple, and beech 

 trees; also in hedges, briar and kalmia patches, occasionally on old logs, and 

 now and then even on the gi'ouud. 



A rather high nest was found by P. G. Howes (1908) near Stam- 

 ford, Conn. It was about 15 feet from the ground, at the extremity 

 of a limb of "a scrubby apple tree at the foot of a hay-covered field." 

 He says that, in his experience, the nest "has always been lined with 

 maiden-hair ferns." 



H. W. Flint, of Stamford, Conn., in a letter to Major Bendire 

 (1895), mentions a still higher nest, and says: "I know of one spot 

 in this vicinity where the Black-billed Cuckoo might almost be said 

 to breed in colonies — a sloping hillside near a traveled road. Here I 

 have found seven nests of this species within an hour, none of them 

 placed over 3 feet from the ground. I have also frequently found 

 their nest on a fallen limb, the top of which was resting upon under- 

 brusli. As an exception to their low nesting, I once found a nest con- 

 taining two well-feathered young and two fresh eggs over 18 feet 

 from the ground, placed in the top of a cedar tree, in a dense thicket 

 of other cedars." 



As already mentioned under the preceding species, both cuckoos 

 often lay their eggs in each other's nests. Thomas Mcllwraith (1894) 

 mentions three cases of parasitism on the part of the bhick-billed 

 cuckoo, as observed by Dr. C. K. Clarke, of Kingston, Ontario; he 

 says: 



