3 72 CLIMBING BIRDS — SC ANSORES. 



portion and a gloss on the outer webs olive ; iris brown. Length, 12.00; wing, 5.9,5; 

 tail, 6.35. (Baird.) 



Hub. Eastern United States to the IMissouri Plains. Very rare in California. Ore- 

 gon. (Nuttall.) 



Althoiigli ISTuttall and Townsend mentioned seeing this liird in " Oregon," 

 no one has since confirmed its occurrence on any part of the AVest Coast 

 until tlie summer of ISG:^, Avliea Mr. Gruher obtained two specimens, shot 

 in Napa Valley. Dr. Newberry, in P. E. Eep. "\'I. iv. 'J2, does indeed men- 

 tion licarinrj what he thought was the note of a cuckoo, but did not obtain a 

 specimen, and referred it to the otiier Atlantic Coast species {Coccygus rrij- 

 thro'ptlialmus). He might easily have been mistaken about the cry of the 

 bird, as I was myself at San Diego, until I ascertained that the noise was 

 made by a kind of toad [Scwphiopus), and produced the same deceptive 

 effect as that of the bird does, sounding as if in a different direction from 

 the real one. I have not heard this bird in Santa Clara Valley, and think 

 its migration, if any more than an occasional visitor, must lie liy way of the 

 interior valleys of the State. In the East it is called " koubird " from its 

 note, like lon-lvv-hiv , often repeated, and also rain-crow. 



Tliough nearly allied to tlie cuckoo of Europe, it Ijuilds a nest and hatches 

 its own eggs. The nest is usually in a low tree loosely constructed of small 

 twigs, almost witliout a cavity, and tlie eggs are Iduish-green, without spots, 

 the ends nearly equal, and rather large. According to Audubon, they lio- 

 gin to sit on one etr", but lay another soon after, the iirst being hatched so 

 much earlier that the young are often of (juite different sizes. When one is 

 fledged, another egg is laid, and the young assists by its M'armth in hatching 

 it. This occurs successively through the summer, until as many as eleven 

 lia\'e l)een raised from one nest. 



This remarkable habit is not known to characterize any other bird, except 

 perhaps some eagles. They feed, like the Gi'ococcijx, at times on small birds 

 and their eggs, as well as insects. In " Hutchings's California jMagazine," an 

 account of the liabits of one of the North American species, extracted from 



