122 The Birds of Albany County 



SUBORDER CUCULI 



Family Cuculidae 



Black-billed Cuckoo. — Coccyzus erythrophthalmus. 

 11.83 



Yellow-billed Cuckoo. — Coccyzus americanus. 12.20 



Fairly Common Summer Residents 



Field marks. — Long slender birds; bills slightly curved; upper 

 parts grayish-brown; under parts white; erythrophthalmus 

 has red eye-ring and black bill; lower mandible of 

 americanus yellow and wing-coverts reddish-brown. 



The only sure way of differentiating between these birds 

 is to bring them close enough with your glass to note the color 

 of the lower mandible. Slight variations in plumage which 

 I have not indicated, can only be discovered by an examination 

 of the skins. Our Cuckoos are extremely graceful birds, but 

 very shy and retiring. 



They never utter their name, like the European species, and 

 their only song is a series of rather lugubrious syllables of a 

 deep contralto character. The nest is a slight but artistic 

 affair, made of coarse sticks and twigs, and placed in a tangle 

 of vines or some low, scrubby tree. Four greenish-blue eggs 

 are laid, often several days apart. 



I once found a nest containing one fresh egg, one egg in an 

 advanced embryonic stage, and two fully-fledged young. 



