OF THE UNITED STATES 265 



is graceful in the extreme, and often varied, the bird turning a 

 little sideways, and sometimes undulating as it passes with no 

 little swiftness from tree to tree. They always remind me of a 

 slick-dressed Quaker, with a Quaker-gray coat on, and white 

 waistcoat. Most often they hide in the densest part of the foli- 

 age, and flit in a quaint way from branch to branch^ silently 

 hunting their insect prey. I have had this bird alive a number 

 of times, and several years ago took a fine, large male in the 

 archa3ological hall of the Smithsonian Institution. One of the 

 attendants and myself kept him flying about till he came down 

 exhausted to the floor. I have also had the young nestlings, just 

 after quitting the nest; they have short tails, big heads, and the 

 lower bill, instead of being of a deep yellow, as in the adults, is of 

 a pale lead blue. 



These birds consume simply hundreds of noxious insects, all 

 kinds of caterpillars and worms, and occasionally indulge in 

 some of the small fruits and berries. I have never known of a 

 case where either this species of cuckoo or the Black-billed one 

 was guilty of sucking birds' eggs, and am strongly in- 

 clined to discredit all such stories. Were it true, the other small 

 feathered denizens of our forests would surely raise a row every 

 time a cuckoo put in an appearance, just as they now salute a 

 jay. So far as man is concerned, these birds stand among the 

 most valuable of the friends he has to the agriculturist, and fully 

 deserve all the protection he can extend to them. 



They are rather late breeders, but in the South may have two 

 broods to the season. Their nests are slovenly, loose, platform- 

 like affairs, composed of short, dry twigs, a few leaves, and a little 

 moss sometimes. In some cases to these may be added pine 

 needles, the catkins of certain trees, and so forth. Many eggs of 

 this bird are destroyed by being blown or otherwise shaken out 

 of their shallow nests; and if one stand below one of them the 

 eggs can often be seen through the flimsy thing. The number of 

 eggs vary from two to five, but sets of six and seven have been 

 taken, and in these latter cases the nest may have been laid in 

 by another female. Sometimes incubation begins after the first 

 egg is laid, but usually the hen completes her clutch ere she 

 commences to hatch. This species occasionally lays in the nest 

 of the Black-billed cuckoo, and vice versa; while on the other 

 hand, both species sometimes lay in the nests of other birds, as 

 their eggs have been found in those of the Robin, Mourning dove, 



