THE BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO. 367 



IT is difficult at best to dissociate this bird in one's mind from the 

 other species, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Very similar they are both in 

 habits and in general appearance, altho there are infallible rules for distinc- 

 tion in the latter respect, if a fair view is afforded. Both the absence of 

 rufous in the wing, and smaller, less pure, terminal white spots in the tail- 

 feathers, serve to mark this bird during flight; but it is more satisfactory 

 to ogle the bird in the bush until the "red eye" and black bill show up. Indeed 

 it must be confessed that the chief interest of the Cuckoos tO' an ornithologist 

 lies in the constant practice in identification which they afford. 



The note of this species is phrased, rapidly uttered, and more musical 

 than that O'f C. americanus , — Cookookook, cookookook, cookookook. At 

 some distance the sound is not unlike that made by a farmer mending his 

 fence, as he pounds a resonant board into^ position by two or three smart 

 strokes of the hammer. The bird is fond of wet weather, and especially 

 appreciates that sultry mugginess which often precedes a rain. It is at this 

 time that his notes are most likely to be heard, this habit having won for 

 him in connection with the Yellow-billed species, the' title of Rain-Crow 

 or Rain-Dove. 



In view of recent evidence it seems probable that the Cuckoos, at least 

 the birds of this species, are largely nocturnal in their habits. Mr. Gerald 

 H. Thayer in a recent article in Bird Lore^ reports a remarkable series of 

 observations taken near Mt. Monadnock in southwestern New Hampshire. 

 He finds that these Cuckoos are habitually abroad during the pleasant 

 nights of mid-summer and that they travel about at great heights, appar- 

 ently going on long journeys in search of food, and that their presence is 

 indicated by frequent gurgling notes by which their aerial course may be 

 traced and their altitude inferred. These "mid-summer, mid-night, mid-sky 

 gyrations" certainly put the bird before us in a new light, and it is to be 

 hoped that observers here in Ohio may discover whether such habits prevail 

 locally. 



At the nesting season the Black-billed Cuckoo is to be found chiefly 

 in low damp woods or bottomland thickets. The nest is placed at moderate 

 heights and is usually well concealed in thorn bushes or clustering vines. 

 In construction it is a little more substantial than that of the other species, 

 being deeper, with sticks and thorn twigs interwoven. It is provided with 

 a greater abundance of catkins and is often lined with grass. The top, how- 

 ever, is only slightly concave, so that accidents not infrec[uently befall, espe- 

 cially if the first-hatched finds it convenient to roll out some belated brother. 

 The eggs are four or five in number, somewhat smaller, less elliptical, and 

 noticably darker-tinted than those of the previously described bird. 



The parent birds often manifest a curious indifference to molestation, 

 and appear to take downright robbing little to heart. The male, in particular, 



1 Bird-Lore (published by the Macmillan Company, Harrisburg, Pa.) Vol. V., September-October, 1903, 

 p. 143-145- 



