THE YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 



{Coccyzus americanus.) 



Of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo Mr. 

 Dawson has written as follows : "Most 

 birds prefer to face the enemy, so to keep 

 his every movement well in eye, but 

 Cuckoo presents his back, a cold gray 

 affair, from behind which he peers now 

 and then, turning his neck and giving 

 you one eye in a lofty, well-b'red way. I 

 recall no other bird whose gaze is so 

 • calm, so direct, so fearless, yet withal, 

 so decorus." The Cuckoos are watchful 

 but they do not neglect their work, which 

 apparently is to eat caterpillars. This 

 they will do in your presence, but dis- 

 turb them by a too positive action, and 

 they will silently and rapidly leave the 

 locality. These birds are very useful to 

 the farmer and fruit-grower. They will 

 frequent orchards and are very fond of 

 tent caterpillars which they destroy in 

 large numbers. Mr. F. E. L. Beal ex- 

 amined the contents of twenty-one stom- 

 achs of these Cuckoos which were col- 

 lected from May to October, inclusive. 

 He says : 'The contents consisted of 

 355 caterpillars, i8 beetles, 23 grasshop- 

 pers, 31 sawflies, 14 bugs, 6 flies and 12 

 spiders. As in the case of the black- 

 billed cuckoo, most of the caterpillars 

 belonged to the hairy species and many 

 of them were of large size. One stom- 

 ach contained 12 American tent cater- 

 pillars; another 217 fall webworms." 

 Many of the caterpillars upon which 

 they feed are very destructive to foliage. 



The Cuckoos are very active and 

 graceful birds when darting through the 

 foliage or hopping along the branches of 

 trees in their search for insects. When 

 in repose, however, they do not appear 

 intelligent but rather stupid. They are 

 somewhat dove-like in appearance and 

 perhaps for this reason they are known 

 as Rain Doves or Wood Pigeons. As 

 they seem to be more noisy at the time 

 of meteorological changes they are also 

 called Rain Crows. Tlicy have arboreal 

 hal)its, and are seldom seen on the 

 ground. Their flight is noiseless, swift, 

 and graceful but rarely protracted. They 

 prefer dense thickets bordering bodies of 



water, the shrubbery at the sides of 

 country roads and bordering forests, and 

 orchards infested with caterpillars. 

 They are fairly common birds in many 

 localities, but inclined to be shy and re- 

 tiring, and were it not for their very 

 characteristic call notes they would be 

 known by few people outside of the cir- 

 cle of bird students. Their call notes 

 are quite varied. One of these notes has 

 the sound of the syllables noo-coo-coo- 

 coo, and another sounding like cow-cow- 

 cow or koiv-kow-kow, has given these 

 birds the name Cow-cow. These calls 

 are usually several times repeated. 

 Major Bendire speaks of other calls, one 

 of which resembles the syllables of oiigh, 

 ough ough slowly and softly uttered. Of 

 other calls, he says: ''Some remind me 

 of the kloop-kloop of the bittern; occa- 

 sionally a note something like the kiuh- 

 kiuh-kiuh oi the flicker is also uttered; 

 a low, sharp tou-wity-whit and hweet 

 hwee is also heard during the nesting 

 season." 



While the Cuckoos cannot be consid- 

 ered social birds quite a number are 

 sometimes seen in the same tree during 

 the mating season. 



The breeding range of the Yellow- 

 billed Cuckoo is coextensive with its 

 geographical distribution in the United 

 States and Southern Canada. Its range 

 extends through temperate North Amer- 

 ica east of the Great Plains, and in win- 

 ter it passes southward to Costa Rica 

 and the West Indies. There are few if 

 any birds which are poorer nest build- 

 ers. The nests are shallow platforms 

 constructed with sticks, twigs, rootlets 

 and strips of bark, among which and on 

 the top of the platform there may be 

 found dry leaves, bits of mosses, catkins 

 of various trees, tufts of grasses, and 

 even pieces of cloth. These platform 

 nests are sometimes not as wide as the 

 parent bird is long. The depression in 

 the center of the nest is so slight that 

 the eggs are not easily retained even in 

 a moderate wind, unless one of the birds 

 is siltiniz' on tluMu. The nosts arc so care- 



6'] 



