GENUS 20. CUCULUS CUCKOO* 



SPECIES 1. CUCULUS CAROLINENSIS. 



YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 



[Plate XX VIII. Fig. 1.] 



M|. 



Cuculus Jlmericanus, LINN. %s. erf. 10, p. Ill CATESB. i, 9. 

 LATH, i, 537. Le Coucou de la Caroline. Baiss. iv, 112. 

 Arct. Zool 265, JVo. 155. PEALE'S Museum, JVo. 1778. 



A STRANGER who visits the United States for the purpose 

 of examining their natural productions, and passes through our 

 woods in the month of May or June, will sometimes hear, as 

 he traverses the borders of deep, retired, high timbered hol- 

 lows, an uncouth guttural sound or note, resembling the sylla- 

 bles kowe, kowe, kowe kowe kowe! beginning slowly, but end- 

 ing so rapidly, that the notes seem to run into each other, and 

 vice versa; he will hear this frequently without being able to 

 discover the bird or animal from which it proceeds, as it is 

 both shy and solitary, seeking always the thickest foliage for 

 concealment. This is the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, the subject of 

 the present account. From the imitative sound of its note, it is 

 known in many parts by the name of the Cow-bird; it is also 

 called in Virginia the Rain-Crow, being observed to be most 

 clamorous immediately before rain. 



This species arrives in Pennsylvania, from the south, about 

 the twenty-second of April, and spreads over the country as 

 far at least as lake Ontario; is numerous in the Chickasaw and 

 Chactaw nations; and also breeds in the upper parts of Georgia; 

 preferring in all these places the borders of solitary swamps, 



* This genus has been considerably restricted by recent ornithologists. 

 The two species referred by Wilson to their genus belong 1 to the genus Coa'f 

 ci/cus of Vieillot, adopted by Temminck. 



