148 THE BIRDS 
SUBFAMILY COCCYZIN/AZ.—AMERICAN 
CUCKOOS. 
GENUS CoccyZUS. 
[387]. Coccyzus americanus americanus (Linneus). 
YVellow-billed Cuckoo. 
[ Rain-Crow ]. 
Ranee.—Parts of North and South America. Breeds 
mainly in Austral zones, but reaching into Transitiou 
from North Dakota, Minnesota, southern Ontario, Quebec, 
and New Brunswick south to Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, 
Louisiana, and northern Florida, and west to South 
Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma; migrates through the 
West Indies and Central America; winters in South 
America south to Equador, Bolivia, and Argentina. 
On a hot, dry summer afternoon these birds seem at 
their best, if their notes could be called a song. When 
heard at this time the natives assure one of “rain shortly,” 
though this doesn’t alwavs fit the case. In the country 
they keep to the low bushes or second growth, but when 
in the small towns and shady-street cities, one sees them 
and hears them more often in the trees. Their notes, “Cut, 
eut, cut, cut!” repeated rapidly from ten to twelve times, 
draws one’s attention to them, only to see them fly at the 
end to some other distant perch, short flights, seemingly 
unpopular. The nest is a shallow platform affair, loosely 
put together, of small twigs, and on the inner surface 
sometimes fine strips of bark or dry leaves. The height 
from ground varies from two and a half feet in bushes, 
