AMERICAN YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOW. 417 



draw attention from their offspring, fluttering and tumbling 

 on the ground as though wounded. Conjugal love is also 

 shewn in like manner, for Mr. Edward Newton mentions 

 (Ibis, 1859, p. 149) that having shot a male which fell 

 shrieking, the female instantly flew to the spot, and by feign- 

 ing lameness endeavoured to lead his pursuer astray. Yet 

 this species seems sometimes to intrude upon the economy 

 of others, as first noticed by Nuttall, who says he had found 

 its egg in the nest of a Cat-bird (Mimus carolinensis) as 

 well as in that of the American Robin (Turdus mlgratorhis), 

 in the latter case together with two of the owners' eggs. 

 On each occasion he believed that the mere appropriation of 

 the nest was the invader's intention. Until lately no other 

 writer had mentioned any similar instance, but in 1877 

 Mr. A. M. Frazar informed Mr. J. A. Allen (Bull. Nuttall 

 Club, ii. p. 110) of this Cuckow laying in a Robin's nest, 

 and also in that of a Wood-Thrush (T. mustelinus), while 

 Mr. Ridgway states {pp. cit. iii. p. 165) that eggs of both species 

 of North- American Cuckow were found in Illinois in the 

 same nest.* The eggs of this present bird have a dull and 

 somewhat soft chalky shell of a uniform pale sea-green 

 colour, and measure from 1*25 to 1*18 by *98 to *91 in. 

 Towards the end of summer both old and young retire south- 

 wards from their breeding-haunts in North America, though 

 some are said to winter in Florida. 



In South America this species has been found by Mr. Hud- 

 son to reach Buenos Ayres (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 496), 

 and examples have been obtained by different collectors at 

 various places in the more northern part of that continent. 

 Leotaud says it is a common visitant to Trinidad in winter, 

 and at the same season it appears throughout Central America 

 and Mexico. It is known to occur in several of the Antilles, 

 as Jamaicaf, Cuba, Porto Rico and St. Croix — in which last 



* It is to be regretted that further details of these cases, so exceedingly inte- 

 resting in their bearing on the habits of our own Cuckow, were not published. 



f The Jamaican bird has been described as distinct under the name of 0. bairdi 

 (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 120), and that from Sombrero as C. julieni (Ann. Lye. N. H. 

 New York, 1SG4, p. 42), but neither seems really to differ from the true 0. 

 americanus. 



