THE CALIFORNIA CUCKOO. 453 



becoming lighter on continued exposure. .Av. size. 1.31 x .94 (33.3x23.9). 

 Season: June-August; one brood. 



General Range. — Western temperate Xortli .America from nortliern Lower 

 California north to southern British Columbia, cast to New Mexico and western 

 Texas, and south over tablelands of Mexico. 



Range in Washington. — Rare summer resident, chiefly west of Cascades. 



Authorities. — ["Yellow-billed cuckoo" Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T., 1884 

 (18851, 22J. Lawrence, .Auk. \o\. IX., No. I, Jan. 1892. p. 44. T.(?j L". D'. 

 Ra. B. E. 



Specimens. — 1 I', of. W. ) I'rov. ]•'.. 



IT IS possible that these birds are really more numerous in Wash- 

 ington, west of the Cascades, than is generally supposed. They are, how- 

 ever, extremely shy and retiring in their habits, and ver\- local in distribution. 

 The latter characteristic is carried to such an extent that they ma\- almost 

 be said to colonize. For example, the only place they may be found with 

 certainty, near Tacoma, is in a small area well within the city limits and 

 surrounded by houses. In this small s])ace four or five pairs may be found 

 at any time during the summer. 



Their harsh krow-kroiv-krozv-kroii', and the more plaintive knt-kru. 

 knt-knt, is most often heard along the out.skirts of some swamp encircled 

 by a heavy growth of brush and small conifers mixed with deciduous trees. 

 From the krow-kroiu note the birds have gained the name Rain Crow, popular 

 superstition pointing out the fact that it usually rains soon afterward (an 

 occurrence not at all unlikely to happen in western W'ashington, irrespective 

 of the suggestion of the Cuckoo). 



Their food consists entirely of caterjiillars, spiders, and other insects, 

 this being perhaps the only bird to make war extensively upon the tent- 

 caterpillar. The poem, "He sucks little birds' eggs to make his voice 

 clear," etc., applies only to the Cuckoo of Europe. Small birds, it is true. 

 are very often seen in pursuit of a Cuckoo, but this must be purely on 

 account of its close resemblance in form to that of their arch-enemy, the 

 Sharp-shinned Hawk. 



The nest is rather a frail strticture, tho much more bulky than nests 

 of the Black-billed or Yellow-billed Cuckoo. It is placed from four to 

 ten feet from the ground, usually nearer ten, and is most often built against 

 the trunk of a baby fir. The materials used consist of coarse dead twigs, 

 heavilv lined with coarse tree-moss and sprays of dead fir needles. 



The eggs are two or three in number, most often three, and are laid 

 from the second week in June to the first of July. They are a pale bluish 

 green in color, overlaid with a light chalky deposit, somewhat like that found 

 on Cormorant eggs. In shape they vary from long to rounded oval, and 



