218 BIRDS 



BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO 



The Black-billed Cuckoo and the yellow-billed cuckoo 

 resemble each other in appearance and habits so closely that 

 a single article or plate might do for both. Indeed, it is 

 a very difficult matter to distinguish these closely related 

 species unless one is near enough to recognize the black 

 color of the lower bill, which is the main distinguishing 

 characteristic, or slight difference in color of tail, which has 

 only inconspicuous whitish tips. The cuckoo, or rain crow, 

 is one of our very interesting birds. It is closely related to 

 the European cuckoo, which, like our cowbird, lays its eggs 

 in the nests of other birds; but our cuckoos rear their own 

 young, though there is a carelessness about the nesting 

 habits even in our own species. Mr. Frank M. Chapman 

 says: *' There is something about the cuckoo's actions which 

 always suggests to me that he either has done or is about to 

 do something he should not." It is more easy to hear these 

 retiring birds than to see them, as they avoid the outer 

 branches of trees, and fly from the protecting foliage of one 

 tree directlj^ into the middle branches of another, so that it 

 is difficult to see them except on the flight from tree to tree. 



The nesting habits of the two species are so nearly iden- 

 tical that the differences have already been pointed out in 

 the descriptions of the nesting habits of the yellow-billed 

 cuckoo. The cuckoo usually utters his soft and beautiful 

 notes of Cuch-oo-oo, cuck-oo-oo as he flies, but only, as a 

 rule, when a few yards from the place on which he intends 

 alighting. 



