Yellow-billed Cuckoo 219 
Description. Above greyish-brown with a slight bronzy lustre, 
becoming more rufous on the wings; the inner webs of the wing-quills 
largely light rufous; tail graduated, the three outer-pairs of feathers 
black, tipped with white; the outer pair white along the outer web 
as well; below white; iris brown, bill with upper mandible and tip of 
lower, black, rest of lower and cutting-edges of both yellow, legs plum- 
beous. Length 10-75; wing 5-5; tail 5-5; culmen -93; tarsus 1-1. 
Young birds have less white on the tail and the black not so pure. 
Distribution. Breeding in eastern North America, from Nova Scotia 
and South Dakota south to the Gulf States and West Indies ; in winter, 
south through eastern Mexico to Costa Rica. 
The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is a rare summer visitor to Colorado 
chiefly met with on the eastern plains, but occasionally penetrating 
into the mountains up to 8,000 feet. It was noticed breeding in Middle 
Park by Carter ; it was taken, at Fort Lyon by Thorne, and there is an 
example from Ramah in El Paso co., obtained June 4th, in the Aiken 
collection. Miss Eggleston states that it is a summer resident at Grand 
Junction, and that a pair nested several seasons in an orchard there 
(Rockwell). 
Cooke referred the Yellow-billed Cuckoo of Colorado to the western 
subspecies C. a. occidentalis, but two examples in, the Aiken collection, 
from, Ramah and from Gem, Thomas co., Kans, undoubtedly belong 
to the smaller race. Possibly the birds from the western slope are 
nearer the western form. 
Habits.—The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is often called the 
“ Rain Crow,” or the “ Kow-Kow,” the former because 
it is more noisy when the atmosphere is moist, the latter 
from its note. It is an arboreal bird, keeping itself 
concealed in thick trees, and is more often heard than 
seen. It feeds chiefly on caterpillars, and will devour 
even the more hairy and spiny forms rejected by other 
birds. In some cases the stomach-walls have been found 
full of these spines, without any apparent injury to the 
birds. They also eat other insects and fruits, and have 
been accused, but on doubtful evidence, of sucking 
other birds’ eggs. 
The nest in a shallow, frail structure, poorly put together, 
placed low down in bushes or vines. The eggs, three 
to five in number, are light bluish-green in colour ; they 
