CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR 



THE CUCKOO FAMILY 



Finley & Bohlman 



FIG. 226. The road-runner, a Southwestern bird of the cuckoo 

 family. It runs along a road, easily keeping ahead of a horse that 

 is trotting briskly. 



OUR cuckoos are about a foot long but very slender, 

 their tails making half of the whole length. Their color 

 is grayish brown above and dull white below. The 

 yellow-billed and the black-billed cuckoos are the only 

 species to be seen north of Florida. The yellow-billed 

 cuckoo differs from the other species in having the bill 

 partly yellowish instead of entirely black, and in having 

 the ends of the tail feathers white for a much greater 

 length. 



Cuckoos are more often heard than seen, for they 

 usually conceal themselves in foliage when they are not 

 flying. They arrive later in spring than do most of the 

 summer residents, not until many kinds of trees are 

 in leaf. Their notes are so different from those of any 

 of the song birds, that you might suppose the sound 

 issued from the throat of a frog rather than of a bird. 

 Their cry sounds like Kuk-kuk, kuk-kuk, kuk-kuk; at 

 other times, Cow, cow, cow. The black-billed cuckoo 



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