

230 YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 



eggs another birds, like the Crow, the Blue Jay, and other pil- 

 lagers.? They also occasionally eat various kinds of berries. 

 But from the circumstance of destroying such numbers of very 

 noxious larvae, they prove themselves the friends of the farmer, 

 and are highly deserving of his protection. 



The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is thirteen inches long, and six- 

 teen inches in extent; the whole upper parts are of a dark glos- 

 sy drab, or what is usually called a Quaker colour, with green- 

 ish silky reflections; from this must however be excepted, the 

 inner vanes of the wings, which are bright reddish cinnamon; 

 the tail is long, composed of ten feathers, the two middle ones 

 being of the same colour as the back, the others which gradual- 

 ly shorten to the exterior ones, are black, largely tipt with 

 white; the two outer ones are scarcely half the length of the 

 middle ones; the whole lower parts are pure white; the feath- 

 ers covering the thighs being large like those of the Hawk tribe; 

 the legs and feet are light blue, the toes placed two before, and 

 two behind, as in the rest of the genus; the bill is long, a little 

 bent, very broad at the base, dusky black above, and yellow 

 below; the eye hazel, feathered close to the eyelid, which is 

 yellow. The female differs little from the male; the four mid- 

 dle tail-feathers in her are of the same uniform drab ; and the 

 white, with which the others are tipt, not so pure as in the male. 



In examining this bird by dissection, the inner membrane of 

 the gizzard, which in many other species is so hard and mus- 

 cular, in this is extremely lax and soft, capable of great disten- 

 sion; and, what is remarkable, is covered with a growth of fine 

 down or hair, of a light fawn colour. It is difficult to ascertain 

 the particular purpose which nature intends by this excrescence; 

 perhaps it may serve to shield the tender parts from the irrita- 

 ing effects produced by the hairs of certain caterpillars, some 

 of which are said to be almost equal to the sting of a nettle. 



