28 LIFE HISTOEIES OF NOETH AMERICAN BIEDS. 



billed Cuckoo considerably. In winter it occurs to some extent in Florida and 

 along the Gulf coast, but by far the greater number pass beyond our borders to 

 the West India Islands, and even through Mexico and Central America to northern 

 South America. It usually reenters the United States from its winter haunts in 

 the South during the first half of April, arriving on its more northern breeding 

 grounds generally about a week earlier than the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. The 

 return migration in the fall ordinarily begins in the latter part of September, 

 while a few of these birds linger sometimes well in October and occasionally 

 even iintil early November. 



Its general habits, plumage, manner of flight, food, and many of its call 

 notes are very similar to those of tlie Yellow-billed species, and it is rather 

 difficult to distinguish one from the other unless very close to them. Like the 

 species referred to, it is eminently beneficial, and deserves the fullest protection. 

 Thev frequent the same kind of localities, and are especially partial to the 

 shrubbery along water courses, lakes, ponds, hillsides bordering wet meadows, 

 overo-rown here and there with clumps of bushes, and the outer edges of low- 

 lyino- forests, while they are far less often observed in high and dry situations 

 any distance away from water. On the whole, its call notes appear not to be 

 quite so loud as the Yellow-billed Cuckoo's, and rather more pleasing to the ear. 

 Their ordinary note is a soft "c66-co6," a number of times repeated. Mrs. Olive 

 Thorne Miller, well known as an enthusiastic and painstaking observer, describes 

 their alarm note as "cuck-a-ruck," and gives a very full and interesting account 

 of the actions of a pair of these birds in her charmingly- written "Little Broth- 

 ers of the Air." From personal observations, I am inclined to believe that the 

 Black-billed Cuckoo is more irregular in its nesting habits than the Yellow-billed, 

 and that cases of parasitism are of more frequent occurrence. I also think their 

 e^gs are much oftener found in different stages of incubation than appears to be 

 the case with the Yellow-billed species. 



Mr. J. L. Davison, of Lockport, New York, well known as a careful and 

 reliable ornithologist, in his list of birds of Niagara County, New York, origi- 

 nally published in " Forest and Stream," September, 1889, makes the following 

 remarks about this Cuckoo : 



"I have often found the eggs of this species in the nest of C. americanus, 

 but only once have I foxmd it in the nest of any other bird, June 17, 1882, I 

 found a Black-billed Cuckoo and a Mourning Dove sitting on a Robin's neKSt 

 too-ether. The Cuckoo was the first to leave the nest. On securing this I found 

 it contained two eggs of the Cuckoo, two of the Mourning Dove, and one Robin's 

 egg. The Robin had not quite finished the nest when the Cuckoo took posses- 

 sion of it and filled it nearly full of rootlets; but the Robin got in and laid one 

 egg. Incubation had commenced in the Robin and Cuckoo eggs, but not in the 

 Mourning Dove's eggs. I have the nest and eggs in my collection. * * * 



"I am also quite certain that I have seen the Black-billed and Yellow-billed 

 Cuckoo feeding young in the same nest, an account of which was pubhshed in 

 'Forest and Stream-' Since then I have found a number of nests containing 



