218 Birds of Colorado 
of a Dove and the cackling of a hen, and it also makes 
a noise by snapping its mandibles. 
The food consists chiefly of large insects, such as 
grasshoppers and beetles, and also lizards, snakes and 
young birds. Stories of its killing large rattlesnakes 
are often told, but these appear to be exaggerated. 
The nest is built in a low bush, as a rule three to eight 
feet above the ground ; it consists of a flat, shallow and 
compact mass of sticks, lined generally with dry grass, 
sometimes with other material such as a few feathers. 
The number of eggs varies considerably, possibly where 
twelve have been found they are from two hens. They 
are ovate, white and unspotted, and measure 1°54 x 1°18. 
They are laid at considerable intervals, and incubation 
commences after the first few are deposited. No details 
in regard to the nesting of this bird within the State 
have yet been published. 
Genus COCCYZUS. 
Head not crested; bill stout at the base, compressed and gently 
downecurved throughout; wing pointed, about equal to the tail in 
length; tail of ten obtusely-ending, strongly graduated feathers ; 
legs moderate, tarsus about equal to middle toe. 
Three species are found in the United States. 
Key oF THE SPECIES. 
A. Lower mandible chiefly yellow; outer tail-feathers strongly 
tipped with white. 
a. Smaller; wing 5-5, culmen -93. C. americanus, p. 218. 
b. Larger; wing 5-8, culmen 1-05. 
C. a. occidentalis, p. 220 
B. Lower mandible black; outer tail-feathers obscurely white at 
the tip. C. erythropthalmus, p. 220 
Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Coccyzus americanus. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 387—Colorado Records—Ridgway 79, p. 231 
Drew 85, p. 17; Morrison 89, p. 67; Cooke 97, pp. 82, 207; Rockwell 
08, p. 164; Henderson 09, p. 231. (This list includes records for 
both subspecies.) 
