325 



YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 



COCCYZUS AMERICANUS. 



Upper plumage, wings, and two central tail-feathers yellowish brown, the next, 

 on each side black, the rest black tipped with white, the outer on each side 

 white on the outer web ; under parts greyish white ; flanks and thighs pale 

 brown. Length twelve inches. Eggs uniform greenish blue. 



THIS bird, better known to readers of the American poets 

 by the name Cow-bird, from its frequently repeated note 

 "cow," has little claim to a place among British birds? 

 not having been seen in this country more than half a 

 dozen times. 



Unlike the familiar English Cuckoo it builds a nest, 

 and rears its young most assiduously. It is peculiar from 

 its habit of beginning to sit as soon as it has laid its 

 first egg. Thus if a nest be examined in which five eggs 

 have been laid, it will be found perhaps to contain one 

 young bird nearly fledged, one much younger, a third 

 just hatched, an egg ready to be hatched, and another 

 recently laid. I find no reason assigned for this strange 

 deviation from the usual habits of birds; but possibly 

 the young birds may, like their European relatives, be 

 very voracious, so that to supply a whole brood at once 

 with food would overtax the powers of the parent birds. 

 The probability of this inference is strengthened by the 

 fact that the female bird lays ten or eleven eggs in a 

 single season. 



