156 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



appearance the parents are fully aroused to their re- 

 sponsibilities and look well after them ; supply in- 

 numerable cater- 

 pillars and every 

 discoverable form 

 of uncanny slug; 

 and when you 

 happen to go too 

 near the nest, the 

 old birds will go 



Yellow-billed Cuckoo. into hysterics, or 

 make believe to, 

 hoping to completely fool you as to the whereabouts 

 of the nest. 



Wilson speaks of this habit as follows : 



" While the female is sitting the male is generally not far distant, 

 and gives the alarm by his notes when any person is approaching. 

 The female sits so close that you may almost reach her with your 

 hand, and then precipitates herself to the ground, feigning lameness, 

 to draw you away from the spot, fluttering, trailing her wings, and 

 tumbling over in the manner of the partridge, woodcock, and many 

 other species. Both parents unite in providing food for the young. 

 This consists for the most part of caterpillars, particularly such as 

 infest apple-trees. The same insects constitute the chief part of their 

 own sustenance." 



The Black-billed Cuckoo has always been, in my 

 experience, a lover of willow-trees that overhung the 

 water. This, of course, is a mere coincidence, but I 

 have never failed to find them, I believe, while wan- 

 dering about the creeks that have so generally a row 

 of pollards on one or both banks, or among the 

 weeping-willows that fringe the mill-ponds. From 

 trees on the water's edge the cuckoos will dart out 



