28 



LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



billed Cuckoo consKleraby. In wmter it occnns to some extent in Florida and 



tTw7,f tTS "' 7 T ^'"'''^" """^^^"" J^'-^^^ ^''y^'^'^ «-• borders to 



the V\ est India Islands, and even through Mexico and Central America to northern 



South America. It usvially reenters the United States from its winter haunts in 

 the South during the first half of April, arriving on its more northern breedinc. 

 grounds generally about a week earlier than the Yellow-billed Cuckoo The 

 retm-n migration in the fall ordinarily begins in the latter part of September 

 while a few of these birds linger sometimes well in October and occasionally 

 even until early November. -^ 



Its general habits, plumage, manner of flight, food, and many of its call 

 iK^es are very similar to those of the Yellow-billed species, and it is rather 

 dithcult to distmguish one from the other unless very close to them Like the 

 species referred to, it is eminently beneficial, and deserves the fullest protection 

 Ihey frequent the same kind of localities, and are especially partial to the 

 shrubbery along water courses, lakes, ponds, hillsides bordering wet meadows 

 overgrown here and there with clumps of bushes, and the outer edges of low- 

 lying forests, while they are far less often observed in higli and dry situations 

 any distance away from water. On the whole, its call notes appear not to be 

 quite so loud as the Yellow-billed Cuckoo's, an.l rather more pleasino- to the ear 

 Their ordinary note is a soft "c6o-co6," a number of times repeated ^ Mrs Olive 

 Thome Miller, well known as an enthusiastic and painstaking observer, describes 

 their alarm note as "cuck-a-ruck," and gives a very full and interesting account 

 of the actions of a pair of these birds in her charmingly- written "Little Broth- 

 ers of the Au-." From personal observations, I am inclined to believe that the 

 Black-billed Cuckoo is more irregular in its nesting luibits than the Yellow-billed, 

 and that cases of parasitism are of more frequent occurrence. I also think their 

 eggs are much oftener found in difterent stages of incubation than appears to be 

 the case with the Yellow-billed species. 



Mr. J. L. Davison, of Lockport, New York, well known as a careful and 

 reliable ornithologist, in his list of birds of Niagara County, New York origi- 

 nally published in " Forest and Stream," September, 1889, makes the followino- 

 remarks about this Cuckoo: ^ 



"I have often found the eggs of this species in the nest of C. mmricanu^ 

 but only once have I found it in the nest of any other liird. June 17, 1882 I 

 found a Black-billed Cuckoo and a Mourning Dove sitting on a Robin's nest 

 together. The Cuckoo was the first to leave tlie nest. On securing this I found 

 it contained two eggs of the Cuckoo, two of the Mourning Do^e, and one Robin's 

 ^^^^. The Robin had not quite finished the nest when the Cuckoo took posses- 

 sion ot It and filled it nearly full of rootlets; but the Robin got in and laid one 

 ^^^. Incubation had commenced in the Robin and Cuckoo eggs, but not in the 

 Mourning Dove's eggs. I have the nest and eggs in my collection. * * * 



"I am also quite certain that I have seen the Black-billed and Yellow-b'illed 

 Cuckoo feeding young in the same nest, an account of which was jjublished in 

 'Forest and Stream' Since then I have found a number of nests containing 



