GROUND CUCKOOS. 



269 



passes through the woods in the month of May or June, will sometimes hear, 

 as he traverses the borders of deep, retired, high-timbered hollows, an uncouth 

 guttural sound or note, resembling the syllables koiue, kowc, kowe, kowe, koive .' 

 beginning slowly, but ending so rapidly that the notes seem to run into each 

 other. He will hear this frequently without being able to discover from whence 

 it proceeds, as the bird producing it is both shy and solitary, always seeking 



Red-headed Ground Cuckoo {Coita ni/icr/>i). 



the thickest foliage for its concealment. From the sound of its note it is known 

 in many parts by the name of the "cow-bird ;" it is also called in Virginia 

 the " rain-crow," being observed to be most clamorous immediately before 

 rain. 



This bird (unlike the European cuckoo) builds its own nest, hatches its own 

 eggs, rears its own young, and in conjugal and parental affection seems nowise 

 behind any of its neighbours of the grove. Early in May it begins to pair, 

 when obstinate battles take place among the males. The nest is usually fixed 

 among the horizontal branches of an apple tree, sometimes in a solitary thorn, 

 crab, or cedar, in some retired part of the woods; it is constructed with little 

 art, and scarcely any concavity, of small sticks and twigs, intermixed with 

 green weeds nnd blossoms of the common maple. On this almost ilat bed 

 the eggs, usually three or four in number, are placed: these are of an uniform 

 greenish blue colour, and of a size proportionable to that of the bird. While 

 the female is sitting the male is generally not far distant, and gives the alarm 

 by his notes, when any person is approaching. The female sits close until 

 you may almost reach her with your hand, and then precipitates herself to the 

 ground, feigning lameness to draw you away from the spot, fluttering, trailing 

 her wings, and tumbling over, after the manner of the partridge, woodcock, 



