226 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN NEW YORK 



The Kingfisher may often be seen flying high overhead 

 from one fishing-ground to another, or to its burrow. It 

 may then be identified by its curious flight ; after two or 

 three wing-strokes at ordinary intervals it quickens the time, 

 taking two or three strokes much more rapidly. 



CUCKOOS: FAMILY CUCXTIiID.a! 



Neither of our two species of Cuckoo gives the cuckoo 

 cry of the European species. 



Black-billed Guckoo. Coccyzus erythrophthalmus 

 11.83 



Ad. — Upper parts uniform brown; under parts white; hill 

 black ; skin about the eye red ; small tips of white on all but the 

 inner pair of tail-feathers. 



Nest, of sticks, loosely constructed, in a bush or a low tree, or 

 in a dense mass of vines. Eggs, pale greenish-blue. 



The Black-billed Cuckoo is a common summer resident of 

 southern and central New England and of the Hudson Valley, 



arriving in the 

 first half of May, 

 and occasionally 

 lingering till late 



Fig. 69. Tail of Black-billed Cuckoo ^"^ September ; it 



is less common in 

 northern New England and is absent from the higher and 

 heavily forested regions. It inhabits tangled thickets, plan- 

 tations, and the edges of woodland, feeding on caterpillars in 

 the thick foliage. In May, when the web-like nests of the 

 tent-caterpillar are conspicuous in apple and wild cherry- 

 trees, both species of cuckoo resort to them, and pick out the 

 hairy caterpillars, which most birds eschew. 



Each species of cuckoo has two sets of notes, which are 

 very similar in tone and form. One consists of a series of 



