144 BY-WAVS AND BIRD-NOTES. 
closely as I could, they evaded me. They ap- 
peared not to care much for each other’s 
company, save when in a loving mood, and I 
think they roosted without any reference to 
companionship. Early in the morning, how- 
ever, the pair found each other out, and joined 
in the labor of nest-building or the pursuit of 
caterpillars and other leaf-eating insect forms, 
with a reasonable show of conjugal unity of 
purpose. 
Their nest progressed very slowly and 
jerkily. Now and again, for two or three days 
together, nothing was done to it, then for two 
or three hours the work would be unceasing. 
They behaved themselves after the manner 
of awkward and not very apt tyros in the art. 
The male was even silly in some of his per- 
formances, time and again carrying away,from 
the nest a stick (that had previously been 
worked into it with great labor and care), 
apparently in a fit of absent-mindedness. 
This unaccountable listlessness or charac- 
teristic oddity of behavior is not confined to 
the genus now under consideration, but runs 
like a family taint through the whole catalogue 
of cuculide, The ground-cuckoo (Geococcyx 
californianus) is an embodiment of drollness 
and absurdity. The Ani (Cvrotophaga ani) 
is another very interesting kinsman of our bird ; 
but instead of scattering its eggs among the 
nests of other families it has the opposite 
habit, several females laying their eggs and 
together incubating them in the same nest! 
The Cuculus canorus of Linnzeus, which is 
the cuckow or cuckoo of England and Africa, 
has attracted more attention than any other 
bird in the world. Some very strange facts 
