BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO 79 



the orchards and gardens in search for its food, but shunning any 

 intimacy with human beings ; we hear its wandering voice but seldom 

 see more than a fleeting glimpse of its graceful form as it fades away 

 into the shadows. 



In defense of its eggs or young the black-billed cuckoo is often 

 quite courageous. Olive Thorne Miller (1892) writes charmingly of 

 her experiences with an incubating pair of these cuckoos ; she watched 

 them change places on the nest, and found the female quite confiding, 

 but the male never became reconciled to her presence: 



It happened that I arrived when the mother was away, and the head of the 

 household in charge. No sooner did I appear on the path than he flew off the 

 nest with great bustle, thus betraying himself at once; but he did not desert 

 his post of protector. He perched on a branch somewhat higher than my 

 head, and five or six feet away, and began calling, a low "coo-oo." With every 

 cry he opened his mouth very wide, as though to shriek at the top of his 

 voice, and the low cry that came out was so ludicrously inadequate to his 

 apparent effort that it was very droll. In this performance he made fine dis- 

 play of the inside of his mouth and throat, which looked, from where I stood, 

 like black satin. * * * 



Finding that his voice did not drive me away, the bird resorted to another 

 method; he tried intimidation. First he threw himself into a most curious 

 attitude, humping his shoulders and opening his tail like a fan, then spreading 

 his wings and resting the upper end of them on his tail, which made at the 

 back a sort of scoop effect. Every time he uttered the cry he lifted wings and 

 tail together, and let them fall slowly back to their natural position. It was 

 the queerest bird performance I ever saw. 



On another day, she says : "We had not waited long when the head 

 of the cuckoo family appeared. He saw us instantly, and, I regret to 

 say, was no more reconciled to our presence than he had been on the 

 previous occasion ; but he showed his displeasure in a diiierent way. 

 He rushed about in the trees, crying, 'cuck-a-ruck, cuck-a-ruck,' 

 running out even to the tip of slender branches that seemed too 

 slight to bear his weight. When his feelings entirely overcame him 

 he flew away, and though we remained fifteen minutes, no one came 

 to the nest." 



E. A. Samuels (1883) writes: 



Like the other, the Black-billed Cuckoo is very cowardly, and is quickly 

 driven from the neighborhood of the nest of almost any of the other birds. If 

 a robin, or other bird of equal size, discover one of these, to him pirates, iu 

 the vicinity of his nest, he immediately assaults the intruder, with loud outcries, 

 pouncing upon him, and pecking with great ferocity. Others of his neighbors, 

 who are near, join in the attack; the Cuckoo, in retreating, dives into the 

 recesses of a stone wall, or the first secure retreat available; very seldom 

 taking to his wings, as another bird would do. I have known of a cuckoo 

 being driven into a barn by a Blue-bird (S. sialis), who sat perching on a fence 

 outside for several minutes, keeping his enemy prisoner ; and the latter, when 

 pursued and captured by myself, preferred being my prisoner to facing his 

 enemy outside. 



