YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 161 



on the species, I will only remark, that the bird now before us builds its 

 own nest, hatches its own eggs, and rears its own young ; and in conju- 

 gal and parental affection seems nowise behind any of its neighbors of 

 the grove. 



Early in May they begin to pair, when obstinate battles take place 

 among the males. About the tenth of that month they commence 

 building. 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, and 

 blossoms of the common maple. On this almost flat bed, the eggs, 

 usually three or four in number, are placed ; these are of a uniform 

 greenish blue color, 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 so close, that 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, in 

 the manner of the Partridge, Woodcock, and many other species. Both 

 parents unite in providing food for the young. This consists for the 

 most part of caterpillars, particularly such as infest apple-trees. The 

 same insects constitute the chief part of their own sustenance. They 

 are accused, and with some justice, of sucking the eggs of other birds, 

 like the Crow, the Blue Jay, and other pillagers. They also occasion- 

 ally eat various kinds of berries. But from the circumstance of destroy- 

 ing such numbers of very noxious larvre, they prove themselves the 

 friends of the farmer, and are highly deserving of his protection. 



The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is thirteen inches long, and sixteen inches 

 in extent ; the whole upper parts are of a dark glossy drab, or what is 

 usually called a Quaker color, with greenish silky reflections ; from this 

 must however be excepted, the inner vanes of the wings, which are bright 

 reddish cinnamon ; the tail is long, composed of ten feathers, the two 

 middle ones being of the same color as the back, the others which gra- 

 dually shorten to the exterior ones, are black, largely tipped with white ; 

 the two outer ones are scarcely half the length of the middle one ; the 

 whole lower parts are pure white ; the feathers covering the thighs being 

 large like those of the Hawk tribe ; the legs and feet are light blue, the 

 toes placed two before, and two behind, as in the rest of the genus ; the 

 bill is long, a little bent, very broad at the base, dusky black above, and 

 yellow below ; the eye hazel, feathered close to the eyelid, which is yel- 

 low. The female differs little from the male; the four middle tail- 

 feathers in her are of the same uniform drab ; and the white, with which 

 the others are tipped, not so pure as in the male. 



In examining this bird by dissection, the inner membrane of the giz- 

 VoL. L— 11 



