GUCULIBJE—COCCYGINM: AMEBICAN CUCKOOS. 475 



saddled on a branch or in a fork. Though not habitually parasitic, they often slip an egg in 

 other birds' nests, or in each other's. Oviposition is tardy or irregular ; the nests usually con- 

 tain eggs in different stages of development, or eggs and young together. They are well-known 

 inhabitants of our streets and parks as well as of woodland, noted for their loud, jerky ci-ies, 

 which they are supposed to utter most frequently in falling weather, whence their popular 

 name, " rain-crow." Migratory, insectivorous, and frugivorous. 



Analysis of Species. 

 Bill black and bluish. 



White below. "Wings with little or no cinnamon. Tail-feathers not broadly white-ended. 



erythrophthalmus 428 

 Bill blaclc and yellow. Tail-feathers broadly white-ended. 



White below. Wings extensively cinnamon . . . , americanus 429 



Tawny below. Ears dusky . . . seniculus 430 



Fig- 327. — Yellow-billed Cuckoo, i nat. size. (From Biehm.) 



428. C. erythrophthal'mus. (Gr. ipvdpos, eruthros, reddish ; 6^Ba\fW9, ophthalmos, eye.) Black- 

 billed Cuckoo. ^ ? : Bill blackish except occasionally a, trace of yellowish, usually bluish 

 at base below. Above, satiny olive-gray. Below, pure white, sometimes with a faint tawny 

 tinge on the fore-parts. Wings with little or no rufous. Lateral tail-feathers not contrasting 

 with the central, their tips for a short distance blackish, then obscurely white ; no bold contrast 

 of black with large white spaces. Bare circumocular space livid : edges of eyelids red. Length 

 11.00-12.00 ; extent about 15.50 ; wing 5.00-5.50; tail 6.00-6.50 ; bill under an inch. Very 



