BIRDS OF NEW YORK I3I 



cuckoos build nests of their own, in tangles or thick bushes near the ground, 

 although their architecture is rather loose and straggling, and the interior 

 of the nest only slightly hollowed, so that the eggs rest upon it as on a 

 small platform. The eggs are usually deposited at intervals, so that young 

 birds and fresh eggs may sometimes be found in the nest at the same 

 time. This practice of laying at intervals might readily be conceived as 

 the beginning of the parasitic habits of some species, and even our native 

 cuckoos occasionally drop their eggs in the nests of other birds, as has 

 been reported by several New York observers. Personally, I have rarely 

 found cuckoos' eggs in other birds' nests, excepting that the eggs of the 

 Yellow-billed species I have found in the nest of the Black-billed cuckoo. 

 The economic value of cuckoos can not be questioned. Of all our 

 native birds they seem the most addicted to caterpillar diet, even choosing 

 the hairy or spiny species, such as the web worms that are shunned by 

 many of our insectivorous birds. They undoubtedly furnish the best 

 means of holding in check outbreaks of leaf -eating larvae in the thickets 

 and shrubbery which border our orchards and gardens, and so prevent 

 them from spreading to cultivated trees. It is unfortunate that these 

 birds are not more abundant, but their numbers might be increased by 

 offering them suitable tangles and thickets in which to make their nests 

 at the corners of our farms and cultivated fields. An account of the food 

 of cuckoos and their value to agriculture is found in Bulletin 9, Biological 

 Survey, United States Department of Agriculture. 



Coccyzus americanus americanus (Linnaeus) 

 Yellow-billed Cuckoo 



Plate 5S 



Cuculus americanus Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:111 

 Coccyzus americanus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 194, fig- 30 

 Coccyzus americanus americanus. A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. 



p. 181. No. 387 



coccyzus, Gr., xoxxu^os, presumable noun corresponding with the verb xoxxutiw, to 



cuckoo 



9 



