68 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



difficult to approach. Most active iu the early morning, its characteristic note, 

 a loud, clear "kow-kow-kow," may be heard coming from some tree or group 

 of trees, and perchance an answering "kow-kow-liow," may come from another 

 tree, some distance away. * * * 



After the birds retire to the willow bottoms to breed, their entire attitude 

 changes. When watched and studied in the seclusion of their brush grown 

 haunts, while engrossed with the cares of their domestic duties, the Cuckoos 

 cease to be the wild, shy birds of the upland timber. The familiar "kow-kow- 

 kow" is now forsaken for anotlier note, a low guttural note, "kulc-lcuk-knli," 

 always uttered by a brooding bird and is the most common call of the cuckoo 

 during the breeding season. 



Courfshi'p. — J, H. Bowles (Dawson and Bowles, 1909) writes: 

 "While standing in an open ATOodland listening to a pair of Cuckoos 

 calling to each other, I saw the male suddenly fly past with a large 

 green worm in his bill. He flew directly to the female, who was 

 perched in a tree a few yards distant, and for a moment or two they 

 sat motionless a few inches apart looking at each other. The male 

 then hovered lightly over his mate and, settling gently upon her 

 shoulders, gracefully bent over and placed the worm, in her bill. It 

 was a pretty and daintily performed piece of love-making," 



Nesting. — The nesting habits of the California cuckoo are much 

 like those of its eastern relative. In California its favorite nesting 

 sites are in willow thickets in the river bottoms, or in, such swampy 

 lowlands as those referred to above. D. E. Brown writes to me that 

 it is a rare bird in western Washington, and says : "It is found mostly 

 in willow swamps, on the shores of fresh-water lakes, and along 

 streams where the underbrush is thick. I have seldom seen it very 

 far away from fresh water and never in real thick woods. It is a 

 late arrival and does not begin nest building until about the fourth 

 of July. I have found about a dozen occupied nests and only one of 

 these was earlier than the above date ; this one w^as on June 19. All 

 these nests were in willow or wild-rose bushes, except one which was 

 in a spirea bush. All nests were 2 to 8 feet from the ground, or water 

 when built in swamps. The nest is a very frail, small affair composed 

 of twigs loosely put together and lined with finer twigs and some- 

 times a few leaves. Most of the nests that I have seen have been so 

 very flat and small that they would be exceedingly hard to find if 

 the birds were not on them." 



A nest in the Thayer collection, taken near Kirkland, Wash., on 

 July 7, 1909, was found in an open space in a fir forest in low ground, 

 which was dotted with a second growth of fir and some Osmaronia 

 and Spiraea; it was placed on a branch of a fir on the exposed side 

 of the tree, 9 feet from the ground ; it was made of old fir twigs and 

 lined with fresh fir twigs. I have heard of other Washington nests 

 in fir trees. 



