CUCKOOS 265 



taken throughout the State. Earliest date of appearance is 

 October 25, but usually they are not here until November, and 

 the last ones are gone by March 10. 



They seem to fly and hunt more by day than by night with 

 us and their manner of flight, their general appearance when 

 perching and other characters are quite hawklike. They nest 

 in various evergreen trees, making a nest of sticks, lined with 

 moss or sometimes lay their eggs in natural cavities in trees. 

 Three to seven pure white eggs are laid in late April or May 

 and the eggs are said to measure about 1.50 x 1.25. The food 

 of the species consists of mice, small mammals and occasionally 

 a bird or so. 



Order COCCYGES. Cuckoos, etc. 

 Suborder CUCULI. Cuckoos, etc. 



Family CUCULI D^. Cuckoos, Anis, etc. 



Subfamily COCCYGIN^. American Cuckoos. 

 Genus COCCYZUS Vieillot. 



Key to the species of COCCYZUS. 



A. Basal half or more of lower mandible yellow; webs of primaries 



rufous on inner edge or more; outer tail feathers black, white 

 tipped. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 



B. No yellow on bill ; tail feathers grayish brown, only slightly white 



tipped and with indistinct subterminal dusky bar; primaries 

 without rufous. Black-billed Cuckoo. 



387. Coccy ztis americanus (hinn.^. Yellow-billed Cuckoo ; 

 Rain Crow; Rain Dove; Chow Chow; Egg Sucker; Milk 

 Sourer. 



Plumage of adults : brownish gray above with a perceptible greenish 

 gloss ; at least inner webs of wing feathers rufous, the outer rufous tinged 

 toward base; all but two inner tail feathers black, broadly white tipped; 

 below whitish ; bill with at least basal half of lower mandible yellow, the 

 upper mandible black. Immature plumage : differs in the tail feathers being 



