1 44 BY-WAYS AND BIRD-NO TBS. 



closely as I could, they evaded me. They ap- 

 peared not to care much for each other's 

 company, save when in a loving mood, and I 

 think they roosted without any reference to 

 companionship. Early in the morning, how- 

 ever, the pair found each other out, and joined 

 in the labor of nest-building or the pursuit of 

 caterpillars and other leaf-eating insect forms, 

 with a reasonable show of conjugal unity of 

 purpose. 



Their nest progressed very slowly and 

 jerkily. Now and again, for two or three days 

 together, nothing was done to it, then for two 

 or three hours the work would be unceasing. 

 They behaved themselves after the manner 

 of awkward and not very apt tyros in the art. 

 The male was even silly in some of his per- 

 formances, time and again carrying away from 

 the nest a stick (that had previously been 

 worked into it with great labor and care), 

 apparently in a fit of absent-mindedness. 



This unaccountable listlessness or charac- 

 teristic oddity of behavior is not confined to 

 the genus now under consideration, but runs 

 like a family taint through the whole catalogue 

 of cuculidie. The ground-cuckoo (Geococcyx 

 californianus) is an embodiment of drollness 

 and absurdity. The Ani {Crotophaga ant) 

 is another very interesting kinsman of our bird ; 

 but instead of scattering its eggs among the 

 nests of other families it has the opposite 

 habit, several females laying their eggs and 

 together incubating them in the same nest ! 



The Cuculus canorus of Linnseus, which is 

 the cuckow or cuckoo of England and Africa, 

 has attracted more attention than any other 

 bird in the world. Some very strange facts 



