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Young. Differs from the adult in having the under surface of the tail grey, the white tips to the feathers 

 smaller, and there is less rufous on the wings ; but in this plumage they can easily be distinguished from 

 the black-billed species by their yellow bill. 



The present species is one of those birds that occasionally straggle to the shores of Great Britain 

 from the American continent, and has only once been known to visit any other part of Europe. Up 

 to the present time, so far as I can ascertain, it has only been met with on five occasions, four of 

 which were included by Yarrell in his 3rd edition. The first of these individuals was obtained at 

 Youghal, co. Cork, Ireland, in the autumn of 1825; the second was also killed in Ireland, near 

 Bray, in co. Wicklow ; the third was obtained in Cornwall, but the date of capture is not given ; and 

 the fourth was shot at Stackpole Court, Pembrokeshire, in the autumn of 1832. A fifth example, 

 which was found on the 26th October, 1870, was picked up dead in a wood near Aberystwith 

 by Mr. C. J. Williams, and was sent to me for examination by Captain Coscus, of Unys Hir 

 House, Llandovery, into whose possession it had passed. This specimen, which was apparently 

 a young bird, I exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society on the 18th April, 1871 ; and, as 

 then remarked, it showed no signs of having been in captivity. On one occasion only does it 

 appear to have been obtained on the continent of Europe; for, although M. Jaubert stated. that 

 two individuals had been killed in Southern France, yet, as Messrs. Degland and Gerbe pointed 

 out, there is nothing to show that the birds in question really were Yellow-billed Cuckoos. The 

 one specimen above referred to, making the sixth occurrence on record, was, M. A. Dubois 

 states (Bull. Ac. Roy. Belg. xxxix. p. 9), killed on the 22nd October, 1874, at Bois-de-Lessines 

 (Hainault), in Belgium, and is in the possession of M. C. Fontaine, of Papignies. 



The home of the present species is in the Nearctic Region, where it has a tolerably wide 

 range ; for it is distributed from Canada down probably as far south as Brazil. Messrs. Baird, 

 Brewer, and Ridgway say (N.-Am. B. ii. p. 478) that it " is distributed throughout North America, 

 from Canada to Florida, and from the Atlantic coast to California." Mr. Benzon informs me that 

 he possesses a specimen which was shot at Julianshaab, in Greenland, in 1874. Wilson met with 

 it on Lake Ontario; and my brother informs me that he has shot it near Kingston on that lake, 

 but that it was not so common there as the Black-billed Cuckoo. It breeds in New Brunswick ; 

 and Audubon states that he found it high up on the Mississippi river, on the upper branches of 

 the Arkansas, and in Upper Canada, as well as in every State between these limits. Mr. Ridgway 

 says (I. c.) that he once saw it, and heard it at other times, near Sacramento city, Cal., in June 

 1867. It was there rare, or at least not common, and found principally in willow-thickets. It 

 was again met with in July of the same year along the Truckee river, in Nevada, where, also, it 

 appeared to be very rare. When in Mexico and Texas, in 1863 and 1864, I found the present 

 species by no means rare ; and near San Antonio, in Texas, it was very common during the 

 breeding-season. Dr. Sclater says, in his article on the genus Coccyzus (P. Z. S. 1870, p. 166), 

 that he possesses specimens from Mexico, Jamaica, and Bogota; Mr. Salvin obtained it from 

 Guatemala ; Von Frantzius in Costa Rica ; McCleannan in Panama ; Mr. W. H. Hudson obtained 

 an example at Juilines, Buenos Ayres, on the 21st April, 1870 ; and Dr. Sclater, who records 

 this occurrence, adds that there can be little doubt that the bird obtained by Natterer in S. Paulo, 

 Brazil, and referred by Von Pelzeln to Coccyzus bairdi, also belonged to the present species. It 

 also occurs on the West-India Islands : Gosse says that it is a regular spring visitant to Jamaica, and 



