220 Birds of Colorado 
are unspotted and measure 1:19 x ‘90. Occasionally 
this Cuckoo shows a tendency to parasitism. Eggs 
have been known to have been dropped in the nests 
of other birds, most often perhaps in the nest of the 
Black-billed Cuckoo. 
California Cuckoo. Coccyzus americanus occidentalis. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 387a. 
Description.—Larger than C. americanus, with a proportionally larger 
and, stouter bill; wing 5-84; tail 6-59; culmen 1-05. 
Distribution. Western North America from British Columbia south 
to Lower California, New Mexico, and the tablelands of Mexico proper. 
Cooke refers the Yellow-billed Cuckoo of Colorado to this subspecies, 
but most of the Colorado examples which I have seen appear to be nearer 
the eastern race. In the State Historical Collection at Denver there 
are two specimens, obtained in Denver, which perhaps might be referred 
to the larger-billed form, while others taken in Yuma are certainly 
smaller, and should more properly be referred to the eastern race. 
Black-billed Cuckoo. Coccyzus erythropthalmus. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 388—Colorado Records—Bendire 92, p. 27; 
Cooke 94, p. 183; 97, p. 82; H. G. Smith 05, p. 82. 
Description.—Above greyish-brown with a slight bronzy lustre, no 
rufous on the wings, tail-feathers all like the back, subterminally dusky, 
terminally obscurely white ; below white; iris brown, bare skin round 
the eye red, bill black, sometimes a trace of yellow on the lower man- 
dible ; legs plumbeous. Length 11-5; wing 5-4; tail 6-15; culmen -85 ; 
tarsus -9. Young birds have the feathers of the upper-parts edged 
with whitish. 
Distribution. Breeding in eastern North America from Manitoba, 
Labrador and Nova Scotia, south to the Gulf States ; south in winter 
to the West Indies, Central America and northern South America. 
The Black-billed Cuckoo is even rarer in Colorado than the Yellow- 
billed. It is probably a summer resident, but has not yet been found 
nesting, and has hitherto only been met with in the north-eastern plains 
counties. An example now mounted in the Museum at Fort Collins 
was collected by Breninger on June llth. W. G. Smith and Osburn 
found it rare at Loveland, but believed that it nested there, and more 
recently H. G. Smith obtained a single example in Jackson’s cajion, 
near Wray, on May 21st, 1904. 
Habits.—The Black-billed Cuckoo hardly differs from 
the Yellow-billed Cuckoo in this respect. 
