BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 221 



not a very wild, or over- cautious bird and yet are more arbor- 

 eal in their habits than the Black- billed Cuckoos. They leave 

 the country soon after the first sharp frosts of autumn. 



Their food consists largely of catterpillers, larvse, and 

 smaller forms of insects. 



Whenever I have seen this bird it has invariably been in the 

 timber, where thickets prevail, and I have almost uniformly 

 found it on the ground apparently feeding upon insects and 

 larvae. It would slip into the thicket instantly, through open- 

 ings so small as to seem impossible to a bird of so great exten- 

 sion of its wings. As soon as well concealed, perhaps not 

 twenty yards away, it would remain perfectly motionless until, 

 with my field glass I could find and note it at my leisure, so 

 long as I made no advance. 



I have been disappointeJ in not getting more reports of this 

 species from other sections of the State, and must think the 

 reason is its extreme shyness, and not its total absence. I 

 know of no other bird of its marked proportions which is so 

 difficult to observe, for the reasons mentioned. 



It will be driven a mile without appearing in sight above the 

 brushy thickets it frequents, slipping alike through the peril- 

 ous meshes of a thorn-bush and a prickly ash. I have pursued 

 them in this manner until an opening compelled them to 

 expose themselves for a moment, when they would fly as near 

 the ground as possible to the next thicket, in which passage 

 lay my only opportunity in securing them. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Upper mandible and tip of lower, black; rest of lower man- 

 dible and cutting edges of upper, yellow; upper parts metallic 

 greenish- olive, slightly tinged with ashy toward the bill; be- 

 neath white; tail feathers (except the median, which are like 

 the back), black, tipped with white about an inch on the outer 

 feathers, the external one with the outer edge almost entirely 

 white; quills orange-cinamon; the terminal portion and a gloss 

 on the outer webs, olive; iris brown. 



Length, 12; wing, 5.95; tail, 6.35. 



Habitat, temperate North America. 



COYCCZUS ERYTHROPHTHALMUS (Wilson). (388.) 



BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO. 



This species is, and has ever been a more regular summer 

 resident than the Yellow billed Cuckoo, reaching us about the 

 25th of April, often a little earlier or a little later. In common 

 with the other species of cuckoo, the male precedes the female 



