434 YBLLOW-BILLBD CUCKOO. 



last one is dropped. Thus fresh eggs, and young may be found in a nest at the same 

 time. Though an orderly member of a disreputable family, it now and then piractices 

 "the vice which disgraces so many of its relatives" and lays its eggs in the nests of 

 other birds. The egg has been found in the nest of the Wood Thrush, ^pbin, Catbird, 

 Cedarbird, Cardinal, Mourning Dove, etc. Such instances, however, are exceedingly rare 

 and have never come under my observation. The color of the eggs is a peculiar glaucouS- 

 green, which fades upon exposure to the light. Though usually somewhat larger, they 

 cannot with any certainty be distinguished from the eggs of the Black-billed Cuckoo. 



Though rather a solitary bird, I have often seen, in Texas as well as in jVIissouri, 

 five or six individuals in one thicket, where they uttered quite a variety of notes, the 

 most common call being the ordinary coobk-cook-cook-cook, which changed into a low 

 cow-cow-cow-cow, and a somewhat plaintive coo-coo-coo-coo; others called ock-ock- 

 ock-ock, and kee-uh, kee-uh, kee-uh, kee-uh. In their notes they resemble closely the 

 Black-billed Cuckoo. 



There is scarcely another bird which does more good than this bird. It sfibsists 

 almost entirely of eater-pillars, and even the large and ugly hairy ones and those with 

 formidable spines are eaten. "Among the most important ones so destroyed are the 

 canker-worm, the tent eater-pillar {Clisiocampa americana), and that of the Vanessa 

 antiopa, as well as of numerous other butterflies, also grasshoppers, beetles, cicadas, 

 small snails, etc., and different kinds of fruits, as berries, mulberries, grapes, and others. . . . 

 All of our Cuckoos deserve the utmost protection ; it is simply astonishing how quickly 

 a pair of these birds will exterminate the thousands of eater-pillars infesting orchard 

 and other trees in certain seasons ; it makes no difference how hairy and spiny these may 

 be, none are rejected by them, although no other birds will touch them, and the walls 

 of their stomachs are sometimes completely pierced by the sharp, stiletto-like hairs, 

 without injury, and apparently not incommoding these birds in the least. Their benefit 

 to the horticulturist is immense, and he has certainly no better friends among our birds." 



In the West the Yellow-billed Cuckoo is represented by the California Cuckoo, 

 Coccyzus americanus occidentalis Ridgw., which is found from the northern part of 

 Lower California north to British Columbia, east to the Rocky Mountains and south- 

 western Texas. Its habits are like those of the type. 



NAMES: Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Rain Cuckoo, Rain Crow, Rain Pigeon, Cow-cow, Wood Pigeon, Indian- 

 hen.— Regenkuckwck (German). 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Cuculus americanus Bonap. (1766). COCCYZUS AMERICANUS Bonap. (1824). 



DESCRIPTION: "Upper mandible and tip of the lower, black; rest of lower mandible and cutting edges of 



the upper, yellow. Upper parts of a metallic greenish-olive, slightly tinged with ash towards the bill; 



beneath, white. Tail-feathers (except the median, which are like the back), black, tipped with white 



for about an inch on the outer feathers, the external one with the outer edge almost entirely white. 



Quills, orange-cinnamon; the terminal portion and a gloss on the outer webs, olive; iris, brown. 

 Length, 12.00 inches; wing, 5.95; tail, 6.35 inches." (B. B. & R., II, p. 477.) 



