116 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



lovely birds, there is no doubt, and we can easily understand 

 why they liked the region, when we learn that they were fond 

 of cockle-burs, hackberries and giant sycamores. Some of the 

 islands and stretches along the Missouri River are covered with 

 cockle-burr to this day and the river bottom is the home of the 

 hackberry tree and the giant sycamore, in the spacious holes of 

 which they liked to roost and nest. Mr. B. T. Gault wrote in 

 1888: "At one time Paroquets were very plentiful at Paroquet 

 Bluff between Newport and Batesville on the White River, but 

 none have been seen there for at least eight years." Dr. C. H. 

 Merriam reported in the Auk, Vol. IX, 301, that in the fall of 

 1891 Mr. Thurman S. Powell saw two Paroquets in the old 

 Linchpin camping grounds in Stone Co. Lately Mr. Thurman 

 S. Powell informed me that on July 18, 1905, a Paroquet was 

 seen and w^atched for some time at the gate in front of the post- 

 office at Notch, Stone Co., by the postmaster, Mr. Levi Merrill, 

 who knew Paroquets from Indian Territory. The latest report 

 comes from Atchison, Kan., on the Missouri River between 

 Leavenworth and St. Joseph. Mr. Geo. J. Remsburg of Oak 

 Mills, Kan., to whom I am indebted for this interesting report, 

 writes that in August, 1904, his brother, Mr. Wirt Remsburg, 

 killed a Paroquet on the Remsburg fruit farm near Potter, Kan., 

 a few miles south of Atchison, opposite Platte Co., Mo. The 

 bird was alone and was observed several days before it was 

 killed. It made a loud chattering noise as it flew about the 

 country and attracted much attention. Mr. Remsburg posi- 

 tively identified it as a Paroquet, but says it was too badly 

 mangled to be preserved. 



Order COCCYGES. Cuckoos, etc. 



Suborder Cuculi. Cuckoos, etc. 



Family Cuculidae. Cuckoos, Anis, etc. 



Subfamily Coccyzinae. Cuckoos. 



/ 



*387. CoccYZUS AMERiCANus (Limi.). Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 



Coccygus americanus. Cuculus carolinensis. Raincrow. 



Geog. Dist. — The eastern subspecies of the Yellow-billed Cuc- 

 koo breeds from Florida, Louisiana and eastern Texas north to 

 New Brunswick, southern Ontario, southern Michigan, central 

 Wisconsin and southern Minnesota; west to South Dakota, 



