YELLOW-BILLED AMERICAN CUCKOO. 379 



have of late years been taken in different parts of 

 Great Britain and Ireland. One specimen was 

 killed on the estate of Lord Cawder, in Wales, 

 in 1832, and, we believe, first called attention to 

 the fact of its accidental occurrence. Two cap- 

 tured in Ireland came into the possession- of Mr 

 Ball of Dublin, and were brought before the 

 Zoological Society by Mr Thompson of Belfast. 

 One or two others have also occurred, but so 

 uncertain is it in its appearance, that it can 

 only bear the rank of an occasional straggler to 

 our shores. For all that we know of its habits, 

 we are indebted to Alexander Wilson ; from 

 him we learn, that in many parts of the United 

 States it is migratory, and that they prefer the 

 borders of solitary swamps, and apple orchards. 

 The nest is placed on the horizontal branch of a 

 tree, and is constructed with little art, and 

 scarcely any concavity, of small sticks and twigs, 

 intermixed with green weeds and blossoms of the 

 common maple. On this are placed the eggs, 

 generally four in number, of a uniform greenish 

 blue colour. The female sits remarkably close, 

 and when roused feigns lameness, fluttering and 

 trailing her wings. Their principal food is 

 insects and caterpillars, also berries, and they 

 are accused with some justice of sucking the eggs 

 of other birds.* 



" All the upper parts of the head and body, 

 wings and two middle tail feathers, cinereous 

 brown, with a slight tinge of olivaceous; the 

 * Wilson. 



