136 BY- WA YS AND BIRD-NO TES. 



danced their vigorous hoe-downs, jigs and 

 jubah-shuffles. 



The hill country is, for the most part, very 

 thinly settled, and many plantations once fer- 

 tile and prosperous now lie waste, all over- 

 grown with dew-berry vines and persimmon 

 thickets. Everywhere, however, the birds find 

 rich picking in the season of young leaves and 

 larvae, and all those perfumed and flowery 

 groves are charming nesting-places. 



Rummaging among my ornithological notes, 

 I find enough material touching the habits and 

 haunts of our American cuckoos to make a lib- 

 eral volume. Most of the memoranda refer 

 to North Georgia, and, in fact, the yellow-billed 

 cuckoo (Coccygus americanus) especially, is 

 more numerous there than anywhere else that 

 I know of. The habits of this bird as well as 

 those of the three or four other species found 

 in North America, are extremely interesting, 

 disconnected from any mere scientific view, 

 and the places these birds inhabit, and the 

 season during which they may be studied, 

 make the pursuit of knowledge touching them 

 a most delightful affair indeed. 



The old nursery rhyme : 



" One flew east, one flew west, 

 One flew to the Cuckoo's nest," 



should have read : 



" One flew south to the cuckoo's nest," 



in order to conform to American facts ; for it 

 is below the Cumberland range of mountains 

 that one may find the paradise of cuckoos. 

 Of course even the yellow-bill comes far North 

 and nests in our apple orchards, forewarning 



