CUCKOOS. 319 



which he afterwards obtained, he says : " Once both birds 

 seized the same fish, nearly at the same moment, and rising 

 with it into the air, each tugged in contrary directions, until 

 the grasp of one gave way. At last my assistant Sam . . . 

 shot them both. The first was only wounded, and falling into 

 the water swam out seaward, striking out boldly, the wings, 

 however, partially opened. On being seized he proved very 

 fierce, erecting the long crest, and endeavoring to strike with 

 his pointed beak. He got hold of my thumb, and squeezed 

 so powerfully, that the cutting edge of the upper mandible 

 sliced a piece of flesh clean out. He was tenacious of life, 

 for though I pressed the trachea until motion ceased, he 

 repeatedly revived." 



d. The only note of the Belted Kingfisher is loud 

 and harsh, resembling the sound produced by a watchman's 

 rattle. 



24. CUCULID^Ej. Cuckoos. (See 22, adfinem.) 



I. COCCYZUS. 



A. AMERICANUS. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. A summer res- 

 ident in Massachusetts, but rather rare.* 



a. About twelve inches long. Lower mandible, almost 

 entirely yellow. Above, drab, or " quaker " brown (with 

 bronzy reflections). Wings edged with cinnamon. Outer 

 tail-feathers, wholly black and white. Beneath, white. 



b. The nest is hardly worthy of the name, but is generally 

 a frail structure composed of a few twigs, and placed in a 

 bush or low tree, not far from the ground. I have usually 

 found it in dry places, such as dry woods, bushy pastures, and 

 occasionally orchards, or even the " scrub." Near Boston, it 

 is built about the first of June ; " built," however, is not a 

 term invariably applicable to this nest, as I have known it to 



* A common summer resident of the coast as far to the north and east 



Connecticut and eastern Massachusetts, as Calais, Maine, and also in western 



but rare or wanting in the more ele- Vermont, near Lake Champlain. Near 



vated parts of central and western Boston, its numbers vary greatly in 



Massachusetts. In northern New Eng- different years. Some seasons it is 



land it is seldom or never seen in the quite as numerously represented as the 



wilder or mountainous portions of the Black-billed Cuckoo, during others, 



interior, but it has been found along comparatively scarce. W. B. 



