CUCKOOS. 321 



B. ERYTHROPHTHALMUS. Slack-billed Cuckoo. A sum- 

 mer resident of all the Eastern States, but more common to 

 the southward.* 



a. Nearly a foot long. Eye-ring, red. Above, drab or 

 " quaker " brown (with bronzy reflections). Beneath, white, 

 often slightly tinged. Outer tail-feathers, white-tipped (and 

 slightly sub-tipped with blackish). 



b. The nest differs from that of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo 

 in being most often built in wet lands, and in being less care- 

 lessly constructed; strips of bark, or leaves, are often added 

 to the usual sticks and twigs. It is placed in a bush, low tree, 

 or brier, not far from the ground, and here is finished in the 

 first week of June. The eggs are darker and greener than 

 those of the other species, and are elliptical.^ They average 

 about 1.15 X .87 of an inch. 



c. The Black-billed Cuckoos are moderately common sum- 

 mer residents in southern New England, but to the northward 

 become rare. They reach Massachusetts in the third week of 

 May, and leave it in the earlier part of September. They 

 arrive singly or in pairs, and at once announce their arrival by 

 their peculiar and characteristic notes. They frequent woods 

 and shrubbery, particularly in low grounds or swamps, and 

 visit orchards or cultivated lands. They fly rapidly, and often 

 quite far, moving their wings with regularity. On alighting 

 in a bush or tree (for they seldom alight on the ground), they 

 choose a perch sheltered by the foliage, and often move their 

 tail in an odd, deliberate manner, as if just about to fly off. 

 They are eminently cowards, and rely much upon concealment, 

 but, perhaps on this account, they may often be closely ap- 

 proached by man. They feed partly upon berries, and also, 

 it is said, upon " fresh-water shell-fish and aquatic larvae," 

 but they are chiefly insectivorous. They undoubtedly confer 

 great benefits upon agriculturists, and are our principal birds 

 to attack and devour caterpillars in the nest. On the other 



* A common summer resident of t The difference in shape is not 



practically the whole of New England, sufficiently constant to be of much 



but found most numerously in the cul- value as a means of determination, 



tivated parts of Massachusetts, Rhode W. B. 

 Island, and Connecticut. W. B. 



