CALIFORNIA CUCKOO 69 



Major Bendire (1895) says: 



The nests here [Arizona] were placed in willow or mesquite thickets, from 



10 to 15 feet from the ground, and they were usually fairly well concealed by 

 the surrounding foliage. * * * if the California Cuckoo showed the same 

 parasitic habit of occasionally depositing one or more of its eggs in the nests 

 of other birds, as its eastern relatives are now and then known to do, I believe 

 that I should have observed the fact in southern Arizona. Here I found eight 

 of their nests with eggs, and fully five hundred nests of smaller birds, which 

 nested in similar localities among the willow thickets and mesquite bushes, 

 overrun with vines, in the creek bottoms, but not a single instance of parasitism 

 came under my observation. 



Wilson C. Hanna (1937) has published an interesting paper on the 

 nesting habits of the California cuckoo in the San Bernardino Valley, 

 Calif., with a photograph of a nest containing the unusual number 

 of seven eggs ; he writes : 



I have rather complete notes on twenty-four nests that I have examined 

 in the field, six along Warm Creek and eighteen along the Santa Ana River, 

 and with two exceptions all were in willow trees. In one case the nest was 



11 feet up in an alder tree next to the trunk, and in the other case SO feet 

 up in a Cottonwood tree on top of a bare limb partly supported by a few twigs 

 and therefore conspicuous. The last mentioned nest was ten feet higher than 

 any other nest I have seen. Six of the nests in willows were either partly 

 supported by or covered with wild grape vines, another nest was well con- 

 cealed in the center of live mistletoe, while still another was well hidden in 

 poison oak that was growning over the dead willow tree. A few nests were 

 placed next to the trunks of trees, but by far the most common location was 

 well out on a horizontal or leaning limb. The average height above ground 

 or water was less than thirteen feet and two were only four feet up. 

 A good supply of rope and a ladder were necessary for examining some of the 

 nests without disturbing them or the surroundings. 



Nests were always loose structures, of coarse twigs for a foundation, some- 

 times with a little superimposed grape-vine bark, cottonwood bark, or rootlets. 

 In some cases there v/as no other lining and eggs could be seen through the 

 bottom of the nest; but usually there were fresh or old leaves, bark strips, 

 or willow cotton. In only one nest was there a feather in the lining. Often 

 the nests were much longer in one dimension than the other, in one case four 

 inches wide and twelve inches long. 



Eggs. — The California cuckoo lays usually three or four eggs, occa- 

 sionally only two. These are indistinguishable from those of the 

 eastern yellow-billed cuckoo and average only slightly larger. The 

 measurements of 43 eggs average 31.1 by 23,1 millimeters; the eggs 

 showing the four extremes measure 35.5 by 23.5, 33,5 by 25, and 27.5 

 by 21 millimeters. 



Food. — Bendire (1895) says that in a brood that he watched, the 

 young were fed "always with a large black cricket (Anabus simplex or 

 furiniratus) * * *. They picked most of these repulsive-looking 

 creatures from grass stalks and low shrubs on which they were feed- 



