146 BY- WA YS AND BIRD-NO TES. 



notably in some species of woodpecker ; but 

 our cuckoos are the best instances for study. 

 A good binocular glass and a season or two 

 of patient observation will enable any intelli- 

 gent person to detect a great deal of evidence 

 of this tendency in cuckoos. The yellow- 

 billed species carries its vacillating nature 

 on its sleeve, as it were, and forces it upon 

 consideration. The black-billed species is 

 scarcely less peculiar at most points ; if there 

 is a difference it is ot degree only. Even the 

 ground • cuckoo {Geococcyx californianus), is 

 almost absurdly peculiar and outrt in its 

 habits. Dr. Coues says : " They are singular 

 birds — cuckoos compounded of a chicken and 

 a magpie ! They prefer running on the ground 

 to flying, only using their wings as auxiliary 

 ' outriggers ' while darting along at almost 

 race-horse speed." Dr. Coues notes in the 

 nest of this species the same slightness and 

 apparent awkwardness of construction so 

 marked in all cuckoo nests, " As if," he says, 

 " the birds were just learning how to build." 



Our Yellow-bill may be taken as the strong- 

 est type of this strange family. Haunting our 

 bloom-burdened and odorous Spring groves, 

 like some restless spirit of remorse, furtively, 

 dreamily, but ever with a look of suppressed 

 pain, it has affected the popular mind as if 

 with a superstition borne upon its own wings 

 from some undiscovered country. Its voice 

 is considered ominous not only of rain and 

 storm, but of evil in all its mysterious and 

 undefined forms. Of course this is an idle 

 popular delusion ; but it serves to point out 

 the exceedingly well-defined power resident 



