YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 521 



On thinking since of this strange fact, I have felt most anxious to 

 discover how many eggs the Cuckoo of Europe drops in one season. If 

 it, as I suspect, produces, as our bird does, not less than eight or ten, 

 or what may be called the amount of tifo broods, in a season ; this cir- 

 cumstance would connect the two species in a still more intimate man- 

 ner than theoretical writers have supposed them to be allied. And if 

 our Cow-pen Bird also drops eight or ten eggs in a season, which she 

 probably does, that number might be considered as the amount of two 

 broods, which the Red-winged Starling usually produces. 



I requested Mr Rhett to write me a letter on the subject, which 

 he did, but, to my great mortification, I am unable to find it. Having 

 mentioned the above facts to my friend Dr T. M. Brewer, and desired 

 him to pay particular attention to these birds while breeding, he has 

 sent me the following note. 



" The fact which you intimated to me last July I have myself ob- 

 served. The female evidently commences incubation immediately after 

 laying her first egg. Thus I have found in the nest of both species of 

 our Cuckoos one egg quite fresh, while in another the chick will be 

 just bursting the shell ; and again I have found an egg just about to be 

 hatched while others are already so, and some of the young even about 

 to fly. These species are not uncommon in Massachusetts, where both 

 breed ; and both are much more numerous some years than others." 



I found the Yellow-billed Cuckoo plentiful and breeding in the 

 Texas ; and it is met with, on the other hand, in Nova Scotia, and even 

 in Labrador, where I saw a few. It has been observed on the Colum- 

 bia River by Dr Townsend. No mention is made of it in the Fauna 

 Boreali-Americana. Many spend the winter in the most southern por- 

 tions of the Floridas. 



The eggs measure one inch three and a half eighths in length, 

 seven and a quarter eighths in breadth, and are, as already described, 

 of a uniform greenish-blue colour. They are longer, as well as lighter 

 in their general colom*, than those of the Black-billed Cuckoo. I must 

 not omit to say that during calm and pleasant nights, the well known 

 notes of this bu-d frequently fall on the ear of him who may be repos- 

 ing in his lonely camp, or on that of him who rests on his downy couch. 

 I have often enjoyed this monotonous music in the Floridas, diu^ing 

 the winter which I spent there. 



In a female of this species preserved in spirits, the length to the 



