CUCKOO NOTES. 149 
should be protected and their propagation en- 
couraged, as they are the saviours of our for- 
ests, our orchards, and our hedges. 
Looking over my cuckoo-notes, I find re- 
minders in them of all the sweetest woodland 
solitudes between the Great Lakes and the 
Gulf. The bubbling of the cold trout-brooks 
of the Leelenaw blends with the lazy swash of 
the Pearl River and the Kissimmee. 
But I must hasten to remark that, contrary to 
what one is led to expect, in all the low country 
of the South the cuckoos are scarce, even in 
mid-winter. Inthe region of Lake Okeechobee 
and on the outskirt of the Everglades close ob- 
servation failed to certainly note even the spe- 
cies C. seniculus or mangrove-cuckoo. From 
the fact that the Yellow-bill is found on the 
Pacific coast and in parts of the Southern 
Rocky Mountains, it is probable that its winter 
resort may be chiefly in Mexico and Central 
America. In March I saw a few specimens 
haunting the oak groves on the high-lands be- 
tween Tallahassee, Florida, and Thomasville, 
Georgia, and I was told that their nests were 
sometimes seen there. 
So many cuckoo legends have gone afloat 
—each adding something uncanny or roman- 
tic to the popular opinion of our harmless bird 
—that I am tempted to close this paper with 
one current in the southern mountainous region, 
to the effect that the Yellow-bill cannot be killed 
by a rifle-shot if its breast be turned towards 
the shooter. I once attempted to demon- 
strate the fallacy of this claim for the benefit 
of a hard-headed old mountaineer and was un- 
lucky enough to miss my bird! 
‘7 Pher 1” he exclaimed, “‘ what'd I tell ye! 
