^^ NEW YORK. AT J 



Bird's Nests, No. i. 



YeLLW- BILLED CuCKOO.r 



Although there seem to be a great many of us who are interested in 

 bird's eggs, it is only during the past few years that special study has 

 been made of the nests, and it has been surprising to me that so little 

 in regard to the composition of the nests and the comparative amount of 

 material used has come to my notice in the natural history papers. 



The following are a few notes I made this spring on the nest of a Cuckoo: 

 I found this nest on May 21. The old one stayed on the nest till I was 

 within three feet of her, and then she dropped to the ground and fluttered 

 away among the weeds. When I went back to look at the nest on the 

 29th it was vacant. The nest was placed as firmly as the material would 

 permit upon a slightly drooping bough on the south side of a box elder 

 {A'effufido) tree, which was growing on the bank of a small stream. The 

 nest was so placed that it was almost impossible to see it from the ground, 

 and was twenty-four feet up. This is evidently much higher up than usual 

 for these birds, as in Chapman's book on N. American Birds,* he says, 

 " four to ten feet up " only. The nest was four inches in diameter in- 

 side and five inches outside. The depth inside was one inch, and the 

 depth outside, at the rim, was two and one-half inches. The weight of 

 the nest was only one and three-fourths ounces. The bottom layer of it 

 was mostly of dead, litchen covered, wild crabtree twigs, together with a 

 few box-elder, willow and plum twigs. Upon this was a layer of box- 

 elder twigs, still covered with green leaves. These were evidently used 

 more for the twigs than the leaves, for the leafy end was invariably 

 turned outward. Upon this was a layer of the dry pedicels of last years 

 growth from the box-elder and a few of this year's seeds. The rim of 

 the nest contained one piece of the inner bark of box-elder and one of 

 elm, a few choke-cherry twigs with green fruit and leaves still on them, 

 also a few crab-apple leaves. 



The exact list of material found in the nest is as follows : fifty-three 

 crab-apple twigs, total length sixteen feet four inches ; one of willow, 

 eight inches ; eight of plum, total length, three feet one inch ; fourteen 

 of box-elder, total length, six feet four inches. The longest piece 

 was nine inches, and the total length was twenty-six feet five inches, made 

 ■■^'Handbook | of the | Bird.s | of | Eastern | Nortli America. 



