THE YELLOW-BILLED AMERICAN CUCKOO. 



427 



on the lowest branches, rapidly makes its way through the boughs to the very summit, and 

 then takes to wing. 



The nest of this bird is placed on the ground, shaded by a convenient tuft of grass. It is 

 a large and rather clumsily constructed edifice ; having two apertures, through one of which 

 the hen, while sitting, thrusts her head, and through the other she pokes her tail. The eggs 

 are generally from three to five in number, and are more spherical than is generally the case 

 among birds. Their color is grayish-white, sometimes blotched with brown, and they are 

 remarkable for the roughness of their shells. 



The colors of this bird are not brilliant, but are rich and warm in their tone and disposed 

 so as to form very bold markings. The upper surface of the body is black devoid of gloss, 

 with the exception of the shafts of the feathers ; which are highly polished and glittering. 

 The wing-coverts are brown mottled richly with black. The wings are ruddy chestnut barred 

 with black, and the tail is dark brown glossed with green, freckled with brown, barred with 

 white and tipped with the same color. The young birds are much lighter in color than their 

 parents, are more liberally streaked, and have more white about them. 



YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO.— Coccygus amerkanus. 



Wilson says : " The singular, I will not say unnatural, conduct of the European Cuckoo 

 (Cuculus canorus), which never constructs a nest for itself, but drops its eggs in those of other 

 birds, and abandons them to their mercy and management, is so universally known, and so 

 proverbial, that the whole tribe of Cuckoos have, by some inconsiderate people, been stigma- 

 tized as destitute of all parental care and affection. Without attempting to account for this 

 remarkable habit of the European species, far less to consider as an error what the wisdom of 

 Heaven has imposed as a duty upon the species, I w T ill only remark that the Yellows-billed 

 American Cuckoo builds its own nest, hatches its own eggs, and rears its own young ; 

 and, in conjugal and parental affection, seems nowise behind any of its neighbors of the 

 grove. 



