92 NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



387. Yellow-billed Cuckoo — coccyzus americanus. Light bluish green, 

 fading upon the least exposure to light; the green is of the same 

 tint found in the herons' eggs. The number laid seems to vary consider- 

 ably. If the bird begins incubation as soon as the first egg is deposited 

 as many as six or eight may be dropped during the sitting, at intervals of 

 two fo five days. The Road runner has the same habit; and these irregu- 

 larities appear to be more prevalent among American Cuckoos than is 

 generally supposed. In the case of the Yellow bill young birds of differ- 

 ent ages, and fresh and partly incubated eggs to the number of eight may 

 be in one nest. Dr. Jones, in his "Nests and Eggs of the Birds of Ohio," 

 says when incubation does not begin until the complement is completed, 

 as is commonly the case, four eggs, rarely six, make up the set. The 

 average size of twenty-eight specimens is 1.27 by .89. Wherever woods 

 and undergrowth abound the Yellow billed Cuckoo may be seen in the 

 nesting season. The nest will usually be found in a low tree or bush, 

 sometimes it is placed on a brier patch close to the ground. The usual 

 distance, however, is between five and ten feet. It is a slight 

 structure of slender, dried sticks, sometimes twelve to fifteen inches 

 long, but generally much shorter, bark-strips and catkins making up the 

 fabric. Although near relatives of the notorious Cuckoo of Europe, which, 

 like our Cowbird, lays its eggs in the nest of other birds, our Cuckoos 

 generally respect the marriage tie and are not altogether deserving of the 

 stigma of the family name of Cuckoos of the old world, although, when 

 compelled to do so, it does occasionally drop an egg into some other bird's 

 nest. Rain Crow, Rain Dove and " Chow-chow " are its other names. 



Hab. Chiefly Eastern United States, more southerly than the Black-bill; also Pacific Coast and Southern 

 Rocky Mountains. 



388. Black-billed Cuckoo — coccyzus erythrophthalmus. Light bluish- 

 green ; the complement varies from two to five, but usually four in 

 number, with an average measurement of 1.12 by .83. Mr. Harry G. 

 Parker, in the "Ornithologist and Oologist " for January, 1886, records a 

 nest with six eggs in all stages of incubation. The nests and eggs of the 

 Yellow and Black-billed Cuckoos resemble each other closely, and it is 

 not always possible to differentiate the two. Nests of the former are often 

 found which could not be mistaken for those of the Black-billed on ac- 

 count of the coarseness of the nest, larger size and paler color of the 

 eggs; but the nests and eggs of the latter have no characteristics which 

 might not belong to the former. However, as a rule, the nest of the 

 Black-bill is constructed with more care, the sticks being somewhat 

 smaller, the catkins less numerous, and the whole woven together in a 



