268 YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 
name of the Cow Bird; it is also called in Virginia the Rain Crow, 
being observed to be most clamorous immediately before rain. 
This species arrives in Pennsylvania, from the south,’ about the 
twenty-second of April, and spreads over the country, as far at least as 
Lake Ontario; is numerous in the Chickasaw and Chactaw nations; 
and also breeds in the upper parts of Georgia; preferring, in all these 
places, the borders of solitary swamps and apple orchards. It leaves 
us, on its return southward, about the middle of September. 
The singular —I will not say unnatural — conduct of the European ' 
Cuckoo, (Cuculus canorus,) which never constructs a nest for itself, 
but drops its eggs in those of other birds, and abandons them to their © 
mercy and management, is so universally'known, and so proverbial, 
that the whole tribe of Cuckoos have, by some inconsiderate people, 
been stigmatized as destitute of all parental care and affection. 
Without attempting to account for this remarkable habit of the Euro- 
ean species, far less to consider as an error what the wisdom of 
eaven has imposed as a duty on the species, I will only remark, that 
the bird now before us builds its own nest, hatches its own eggs, and 
rears its own young; and, in conjugal and parental affection, seems 
nowise behind any of its neighbors of the grove. oS 
Early in May, they begin to pair, when obstinate battles take place 
among the males. About the tenth of that month, they commence 
building. The nest is usually fixed among the horizontal branches of 
an apple-tree ; sometimes in a solitary thorn, crab, or cedar, in some 
retired part of the woods. It is constructed, with little, art, and 
scarcely any concavity, of small sticks and twigs, intermixed with 
green weeds, and blossoms of the commen maple.. On this almost flat 
bed, the eggs, usually three or four in number, are placed; these are 
of a uniform greenish blue color, and of a size proportionable to that 
of the bird. While the female is sitting, the male is' generally not far 
distant, and gives'the alarm, by his notes, when any person is approach- 
ing. The female sits so close, that you may almost reach her with 
your hand, and then precipitates herself’ to the ground, feigning lame- 
ness, to draw you away from the spot, fluttering, trailing her -wings, 
and tumbling over, in the manner of the Partridge, Woodcock, 
and many other species. Both parents unite in providing food for the 
young. This consists, for the most part, of caterpillars, particularly 
such as infest apple-trees. The same insects constitute the chief part 
of their own sustenance. They are accused, and with some justice, of 
sucking the eggs of other birds, like the Crow, the Blue Jay, and 
other pillagers. They also occasionally eat various kinds of berries. 
But, from the circumstance of destroying such numbers of very noxious 
larve, they prove themselves the friends of the farmer, and are highly 
deserving of his protection. 
The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is thirteen inches long, and sixteen 
inches in extent ; the whole upper parts are of a dark glossy drab, or 
what is usually called a Quaker color, with greenish silky reflections ; 
from this must, however, be excepted the inner vanes of the wings,: 
which are bright reddish cinnamon; the tail is long, composed of ten 
feathers, the two niiddle ones being of the same color as the back; the 
others, which gradually shorten to the exterior ones, are black, largely 
tipped with white; the two outer ones are scarcely half the length of 
cd 
4 
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