CUCKOO FAMILY 



129 



forehead ; sides of head, grayish-brown, like hindneck, 

 etc.; cheeks, space below eyes, chin, throat, and upper 

 chest, pale buffy-grayish ; rest of under parts, jilain 

 dull white, the under tail-coverts more huffy or brown- 

 ish-white ; up|)cr bill, black; lower bill, pale grayish- 

 blue dusky terminally ; iris, deep brown ; naked eyelids, 

 bright red ; legs and feet, pale bluish-gray. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: A more carefully con- 

 structed nest than the Vcllow-billed Cuckoo's ; placed 



ill small trees or bushes, usually within 8 feet of the 

 ground; made of twigs, strips of bark, rootlets, and 

 weed stems, lined often with small catkins, and very 

 shallow. Ec.cs : 2 to 5, plain dull bluish-green. 



Distribution. — North and South .America; breeds 

 from southeastern Alberta, southern Manitoba, southern 

 Quebec, and I'rince Edward Island, south to Kansas, 

 -Arkansas, North Carolina, and mountains of Georgia; 

 winters in South .America from Colombia to Peru. 



I""c\v bird.s art.- more widely known lluil llu: 

 Cuckoo, lie has his place in the Bible, and was 

 honored hy the consideration of Aristotle and 

 Pliny. In mythology the bird figures more than 

 once, and es]K'cially when Jti]itter appeared to 

 Juno in its form. Wordsworth's lines 



O Cuckoo! shall I call thee bird? 

 Or but a wandering voice, 



though of course addressed to the European 

 species, ap])ly as well to ours. 



The frequency with which the English Cuckoo 

 has been jjut into verse by the poets of its 



country, its parasitic habit of laying its eggs in 

 the nests of other birds, and the ubiquity of the 

 so-called " cuckoo clock," have conspired to 

 make the name of the bird very well known in 

 this country. In ])oint of fact, the .'\merican 

 Cuckoo is a totally different bird from the Eng- 

 lish one — different in size, different in color. 

 and very different in habits and disposition. In 

 the first place, the American Cuckoo does not 

 make a practice of laying its eggs in other birds' 

 nests ; indeed, it nearly always builds a nest of 

 its own, such as it is, and brings up its family 

 as every other self-respecting bird does. As to the 



Photo by H. K. Job 



Courtesy of Outing Pub. Co. 



BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO ON NEST 



