WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 185 
387a. CALIFORNIA CUCKOO. — Coccyzus americanus 
occidentalis. 
Famity : The Road-runners and Cuckoos. 
Length : 13.00. 
Adults: Upper parts grayish brown, slightly glossed with greenish ; 
under parts white, tinged with gray on chest ; lower mandible yellow ; 
tail with broad white thumb-marks on the tips ; middle tail-feathers 
brown, tipped with black ; remainder iridescent blue-black. 
Young : Similar to adults, but duller. 
Geographical Distribution : Western United States and Lower California. 
Breeding Range: In California the breeding range seems to be confined 
to the willow bottoms. 
Breediny Season: May, June, July, and August. 
Nest: A loose platform of sticks; sometimes lined with leaves and 
catkins. 
Lggs: 3 or 4; glossy light bluish green ; paler in the incubated than in 
the fresh laid. Size 1.27 * 0.89. 
THe California Cuckoo, or Western Yellow-billed 
Cuckoo, breeds extensively along the willow bottoms of 
the interior valleys of the State. Mrs. Eckstrom says: 
“As a nest-builder the cuckoo is no genius; or, if a 
genius, he belongs to the impressionist school. The 
nest is but a raft of sticks flung into the fork of a 
bough.” Indeed so frail and so loosely put together is 
it that one may see the eggs from underneath. Occa- 
sionally an individual will be found who aims at better 
things and has made some slight attempt to line her 
cradle with grass. Most of these twig platforms are so 
shallow that an effort to peep into them will result in 
spilling the contents, and a windstorm often scatters the 
eggs over the ground in spite of the mother’s care. 
When this happens, or when the eggs have been stolen, 
