128 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



While some people accuse the Road-runner of 

 killing other birds, especially young Quail, our 

 experience showed that he lived almost entirely 

 on lizards. The young birds in the nest were 

 fed on lizards almost from the time they were 

 out of the egg. The reptile was always killed 



and then thrust head down into the mouth of the 

 youngster. The tail for a time would hang out 

 of his mouth, but as the head end was digested, 

 the young bird gulped a little now and then, until 

 finally the end of the tail disappeared. 



William L. Finley. 



YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO 

 Coccyzus americanus americanus (Linnccus) 



A. O. U. Number 387. See Color Plates 58 



Other Names. — Rain Crow ; Rain Dove ; Storm 

 Crow ; Chow-Chow ; Kow-Kow. 



General Description. — Length, 11 or 12 inches. 

 Color above, grayish-brown ; below, white. 



Color. — Above, plain grayish-brown, faintly glossed 

 with bronzy, usually becoming more grayish on fore- 

 head, the outer webs of pyiinarics. suffused with rufes- 

 cent brozcn. sometimes nearly uniform dull cinnamon- 

 rufous; middle pair of tail-fealhers, usually becoming 

 more dusky terminally, tlie remaining tail-feathers, 

 black, faintly glossed with bluish or greenish, passing 



white, faintly shaded with pale bluish-gray, except on 

 under parts of body and under tail-coverts, which are 

 sometimes very faintly tinged with pale buffy : bill, 

 slate-black above, yellow on more than basal half below, 

 and on cutting edge above ; iris, dark brown ; naked 

 eyelids, grayish ; legs and feet, pale bluish-gray. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: Generally in fork of a tree 

 as high as 25 feet up ; a frail structure of twigs, grass, 

 leaves, and catkins, so shallow that it is remarkable the 

 eggs do not roll out oftener. Eggs: 2 to 6, pale dull, 

 greenish-blue. 



Drawing by R. I. Brasher 



YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO ( J nat. size) 

 Mysterious and secretive in habits, but highly useful 



into grayish-brown basally, each tail-feather, very 

 broadly tipl'ed zvith white, tliis decreasing in extent 

 from the outermost, on which the white extends much 

 farther on the outer web than on the inner; sides of 

 head, grayish-brown, sometimes concolor with crown 

 and hindneck, sometimes much darker ; below eye, lower 

 portion of sides of head, and entire under parts, dull 



Distribution. — Parts of North and South America ; 

 breeds from North Dakota. Minnesota, southern 

 Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick south to Louisi- 

 ana and northern Florida, and west to South Dakota, 

 Nebraska, and Oklalioma ; migrates througli the West 

 Indies and Central .America: winters in .South America 

 south to Ecuador. Bolivia, and Argentina. 



BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO 

 Coccyzus erythrophthalmus ( jyilsn7i) 



A. O. LT. Number 388. See Color I'late 58 



Other Names. — Rain Crow : Kow-Kow. 



General Description. — Length, 11 or 12 inches. 

 Color above, olive-brown ; below, white. 



Color. — Above, plain olivaceous hair-brown, glossed 

 with bronze, passing into a more grayish hue on fore- 



head, the inner primaries and outer secondaries some- 

 times slightly more rufescent basally; tail-feathers 

 (except middle pair) twrrowly but consfieuously 

 ti(<fed with dull zvhite and crossed by a broad subter- 

 minal bar of dusky; loral region, brownish-gray, like 



