126 BIRD PARADISE 



hold among the entire host of birds. He al- 

 ways goes neatly dressed, and glides around among 

 the trees very much like the catbird. We have 

 two species, known as the black billed and the 

 yellow bUled cuckoos. In general appearance 

 they are so much alike that one cannot tell the 

 difference only by close inspection. From what 

 I see of these birds I conclude that they are fully 

 entitled to the dislike of their fellow birds. 

 Their sly, gliding movements are a very fair in- 

 dex of their character. Audubon gives them a 

 name that is not at all to their credit. He says 

 they not only lay their eggs in the nests of other 

 birds but they suck their eggs and kill the young. 

 I never have seen them engaged in these vandal 

 acts, but from what I know of their habits I am 

 prepared to believe that they are fully competent 

 to show some bad behavior. Their call is 

 broken and abrupt — a sort of breaking forth of 

 the heat in sound. In my boyhood a pair of 

 them nested in the large barberry bush on the old 

 farm every year. I remember we gave them 

 what fellowship we could, but they acted as 

 though they cared little for it. I notice that with 

 birds, as well as with men, the stroke of the will, 

 made large enough, shapes all the character. 

 Cuckoo wills the hurt of his fellows, and soon finds 



