246 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



evenings while the female quail are nesting, the 

 males, perched on fence riders, prolong this call into 

 a real musical performance by repeating the first 

 note once and quavering the last, making the 

 song: "Bob, Bob ^Vhite!" The beauty of this 

 performance depends very largely on the age 

 and experience of the singer; old birds content, 

 fuUfed, and having had much experience in life 

 and making music, develop a mellow, pleasing 

 tone. 



Two birds of summer, seldom seen but very 

 frequently heard, are the yellow-billed and black- 

 billed cuckoo. These birds are sneakers, travelling 

 through shrubbery with a serpentine motion equal- 

 led only by the brown thrasher. Their nests are 

 crudely constructed, their eggs large and pale blue, 

 the bird's plumage a delicate grey dust colour with 

 touches of white on wings and tail, the body long 

 and slender, the head almost hawklike in shape, 

 with exquisitely cut, curved beak. The tribal 

 call of the yellow-bill begins with two or three pre- 

 paratory notes and ends with four clear and dis- 

 tinctly enunciated ones. He says: " Ur-r-r-coulp, 

 eoulp, oulp, olp!" The black-bill, very similar in 

 shape and colour with the exception of his black 

 bill, and almost identical in habits, probably 

 named the species by his cry: "Cowk-coo, cowk- 

 coo, cowk-cu-coo, cowk-cu-coo." This is repeated 

 five or six times. In the scene beside the brook in 

 "The Pastoral Symphony," Beethoven used the 



