436 CUCKOOS. 
This Cuckoo is common in southern Ontario, but elsewhere in 
the Dominion it is rather rare. Nuttall has not mentioned one 
peculiar habit of this bird, — that of laying eggs at such long inter- 
vals that young in very different stages of maturity are frequently 
found in the same nest, as also young birds and partially incubated 
eggs. The practice of laying its eggs in the nests of other birds is 
seldom indulged in, — indeed, the known instances are extremely 
rare. 
BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO. 
RAIN CROW. 
CoccyzUS ERYTHROPHTHALMUS. 
CuHar. Above, olive brown with a slight metallic gloss, tinged with 
ash toward the bill; wings slightly tinged with rufous; tail similar to 
back, outer feathers slightly tinged with gray, narrowly tipped with white. 
Beneath, white, tinged on the throat with pale buff. Bill black. Length 
about 12 inches. 
Nest. On the edge of a swampy wood, usually in a retired situation 
placed generally in a low bush; made of twigs, strips of bark, moss, and 
catkins. Similar to the nest of the Yellow-billed, but somewhat firmer 
and more artistic. 
Zggs. 2-6 (usually 4); deep glaucous green; 1.10 X 0.80. 
This species, so nearly related to the preceding, is also 
equally common throughout the United States in summer, and 
extends its migrations about as far as the line of Nova Scotia 
or Newfoundland. This kind also exists in the island of St. 
Domingo and Guiana, and the birds which visit us probably 
retire to pass the winter in the nearest parts of tropical 
America. ‘They arrive in Massachusetts later than the Yellow- 
billed Cuckoo, and the first brood are hatched here about the 
4th of June. In Georgia they begin to lay towards the close 
of April. Their food, like that of the preceding species, also 
consists of hairy caterpillars, beetles, and other insects, and 
even minute shell-fish. They also, like many birds of other 
orders, swallow gravel to assist digestion. 
They usually retire into the woods to breed, being less 
familiar than the former, choosing an evergreen bush or sap- 
ling for the site of the nest, which is made of twigs pretty well 
