446 The Cuckoo-like Birds 



tame birds, feeding on caterpillars, beetles, and seeds, and having, according 

 to Legge, "a remarkable human whistle of six ascending notes, as of some one 

 practicing a musical scale." 



American Cuckoos. Whereas in the preceding genera the nostrils are 

 round, in the American Cuckoos (Coccyzus) they are oval, in addition to which 

 the plumage is plain brownish gray or grayish brown above, often with a faint 

 bronzy luster, and white, buffy, or ochraceous below. The dozen or more species 

 range from northern temperate North America through Central America and 

 the West Indies to Patagonia, North America laying claim to five forms. Of 

 these the Yellow-billed and Black-billed species (C. americanus and C. ery- 

 throphthalmus) are common birds throughout most of eastern North America, 

 and are distinguished, as may be presumed from their vernacular names, by 

 the color of the bill. They are rather shy birds, frequenting open woodland, 

 but often appearing' in orchard and shade trees about human habitations, where, 

 as Coues says of the Yellow-billed bird, "they pass from one tree to another 

 stealthily, with rapid, gliding, noiseless flight, and often rest motionless as statues 

 for a long time, especially when crying out, or when they have detected a sus- 

 picious object. They court the seclusion of the thickest foliage," and are much 

 more frequently heard than seen. Their notes, uttered at intervals during the day 

 and occasionally at night, are quite varied but extremely difficult to describe, one 

 of the commonest being low noo-coo-coo-coo, and another that sounds like cow- 

 cow-cow or kow-kow-kow. The calls are supposed by many to be indicative of the 

 approach of rain, whence the birds are often called Rain Crows or Rain Doves. 

 Mr. Brewster thinks it possible to distinguish between the notes of the two 

 species, those of the Black-billed species being softer, but the late Major Bendire 

 did not think it could be done. In any event the habits of the two are very 

 similar and the notes so close that none but an expert could presume to separate 

 them. While both species build their own nest, this being a very frail structure 

 of twigs, usually placed in low trees or vines, there is some evidence to show 

 the parasitism so common in Old World forms is at least latent and now and 

 then crops out, for eggs of the Yellow-billed have been found in the nest of the 

 Black-billed form, and vice versa, as well as in nests of other birds, but it is 

 by no means the rule. The eggs, which are pale greenish blue in color, number 

 from two or three to five, rarely more, and are usually deposited at intervals of 

 several days, on which account it is not rare to find fresh eggs in the same nest 

 with partially incubated eggs or young in various stages of growth. Both 

 species are of great economic value, as their food consists almost entirely of 

 caterpillars, especially those making a nest or "tent," and vast numbers are 

 destroyed, as many as forty to seventy having been taken from the stomach 

 of a single bird. 



In western North America, from Colorado to Oregon, southward over the 

 tablelands of Mexico, the place is occupied by the California Cuckoo (C. a. 

 occidentalis], a larger, stouter-billed form, and in Florida there are two forms, 

 Maynard's Cuckoo (C. maynardi) and the Mangrove Cuckoo (C. minor], the 

 latter ranging nearly throughout the Antilles, Central America, and northern 



