2o6 



Bird - Lore 



YOUNG BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO, 



JULY I, 6 A. M. 



Photographed by A. A. Saunders 



nest and they settled down as though nothing unusual had happened. I was 



anxious to watch the sudden transformation which young Cuckoos undergo 



just before leaving the nest, so I visited them again that day at about 6 p. m. 



The older bird had left the 



nest and was nowhere to be 



found. The feathers were 



beginning to unsheath on 



the back and wings of the 



younger bird. I took the 



second picture of the bird in 



this condition. 



The next morning I 

 reached the nest by 6 o'clock, 

 certain that great changes 

 had taken place overnight. 

 As I approached the nest, the 

 young bird hopped out of his 

 own accord. I was much sur- 

 prised to see that there had 

 been no apparent change in the bird's plumage. I took another picture never- 

 theless, and, as the young bird refused to go back to the nest, left it perching on 

 a convenient twig. At 9 o'clock that morning I visited the nest again, with two 

 friends, who wished to get pictures of the bird. We soon found him near where 

 I had placed him, though not on the same twig. The feathers of the back and 



breast were nearly all un- 

 sheathed. Apparently the 

 process of the breaking of 

 the feathers, w-hich had 

 begun the previous after- 

 noon had been arrested 

 over night and continued 

 again in the morning. This 

 suggests the thought that 

 perhaps light or heat is 

 necessary for this process. 

 The change in the be- 

 havior of the young Cuckoo 

 was equal to that in his 

 appearance. Instead of 

 posing stiffly and awkwardly before the camera, he had no intention of posing at 

 all. Though unable to fly, he would edge rapidly along the branch on which we 

 placed him, till he neared another, to which he would jump. He was wonder- 

 fully acrobatic and, once in the bushes, jumped and climl)ed rapidly. 



YOUNG BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO, JULY 

 Photographed by D. B. Pangburn 



