THE BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO. 



{Coccyzus erythrofihthalm.us.') 



Drouth weights the trees, and from the farmhouse eaves 



The locust, pulse-beat of the summer day, 

 Throbs; and the lane, that shambles under leaves 



Limp with the heat — a league of rutty way — 



Is lost in dust ; and sultry scents of hay 

 Breathe from the panting meadows heaped with sheaves — 



Now, now O bird, what hint is there of rain, 



In thirsty heaven or on burning plain, 

 That thy keen eye perceives? 



— Madison Cawein, "The Rain-crow." 



The Black-billed Cuckoo, like its rela- 

 tive, the yellow-billed cuckoo, is bur- 

 dened with a number of popular names, 

 such as Rain Dove, Rain Crow, Wood 

 Pigeon and Kow-Kow, as well as some 

 others that are of a purely local charac- 

 ter. The names Rain Dove and Rain 

 Crow have been given to both the 

 cuckoos because their interesting notes 

 are more frequently heard during damp, 

 cloudy weather or at the approach of a 

 storm. This habit has given rise to the 

 somewhat popular impression that their 

 oft repeated calls were indicative of the 

 approach of rain storms. Madison Ca- 

 wein expresses this belief in verse, in 

 lines following those already quoted : 



But thou art right. Thou prophesiest true. 



For hardly hast thou ceased thy forecasting, 

 When, up the western fierceness of scorched 

 blue, 

 Great water-carrier winds their buckets bring 

 Brimming with freshness. How their dip- 

 pers ring 

 And flash and rumble ! lavishing dark dew 

 On corn and forest land, * * * 



These birds belong to a rather large 

 family, there being about one hundred 

 and seventy-five species, the majority of 

 which live only in the tropics and only 

 thirty-five are residents of the Americas. 

 The breeding habits of the cuckoos are 

 very interesting and peculiar. They are 

 usually shy and solitary birds, seldom 

 leaving wooded regions. The well 

 known European cuckoo lays its eggs in 

 the nests of smaller birds, and the young 



are fed and cared for by the industrious 

 foster parents. Robert Mundie says that 

 in Scotland the popular name of the 

 cuckoo is gawk and that the people of 

 that country have chosen the word as a 

 synonym for a fool. Why they have 

 done so, "it is not easy to say, for there 

 is more cunning about the cuckoo than 

 about most birds." 



The Black-billed Cuckoo very closely 

 resembles the yellow-billed species not 

 only in its general habits and plumage, 

 but also in its mode of flight, its food and 

 in its various notes. It has an extensive 

 range, covering that portion of North 

 America east of the Rocky Mountains, 

 breeding from Florida northward to 

 Labrador, Manitoba and Assiniboia. A 

 few individuals winter in the United 

 States, near the Gulf of Mexico, but the 

 larger number pass this period in the 

 West Indies, Mexico and Central Amer- 

 ica, and not a few continue their, south- 

 ward flight into South America. The 

 range of the yellow-billed species, 

 though very similar, is not quite as ex- 

 tensive, as it does not reach as far either 

 toward the north, the west or the south. 



Both the Black-billed and the yellow- 

 billed species frequent similar localities. 

 They are "especially partial to the 

 shrubbery along water courses, lakes, 

 ponds, hillsides bordering wet meadows, 

 overgrown here and there with clumps of 

 bushes, and the outer edges of low-lying 

 forests, while they are far less often 



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