38 



There is only one recorded instance of the cap- 

 ture of a Great-spotted Cuckoo in Great Britain. 

 It was taken on the island of Omah, in the county 

 of Gal way, about Christmas, 1843, it having taken 

 refuge in a stone fence or wall from the attack of 

 Hawks. This solitary specimen is now in the 

 Museum of Trinity College, Dublin. 



CUCKOO, YELLOW-BILLED. 



CUCTJLUS CINEEOSUS, Temm. 



There are several instances of this species having 

 been killed in Great Britain, The Yellow-billed 

 Cuckoo, unlike our Common Cuckoo, builds its 

 own nest and attends to its offspring with great 

 assiduity ; but it is said to rob smaller birds of 

 their eggs, and its own are occasionally found in 

 the nests of others of the feathered tribe. Wilson, 

 in his American Ornithology, says: "Early in 

 u May they begin to pair, when obstinate battles 

 u take place among the males. About the tenth 

 u of that month they commence building. The 

 " nest is usually fixed among the horizontal 

 " branches of an apple tree ; sometimes in a 

 " solitary thorn, crab, or cedar, in some retired 

 " part of the woods. It is constructed with little 

 " art, and scarcely any concavity, of small sticks 

 " and twigs, intermixed with green weeds and 



