THE YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 23 



open bill — the whole a picture of love and devotion pleasant to witness, and 

 not marred by any unesthetic act or motion. One of the favorite foods of the 

 Cuckoo in September is the elderberry, and the last week of this month may be 

 set down as the time for its final departure." 



The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is one of the poorest nest builders known to me, 

 and undoubtedly the slovenly manner in which it constructs its nest causes the 

 contents of many to be accidentally destroyed, and this probably accounts lo 

 some extent for the many apparent irregularities in their nesting habits. The 

 nests are shallow, frail platforms, composed of small rootlets, sticks, or twigs, few 

 of these being over 4 or 5 inches in length, and among them a few dry leaves 

 and bits of mosses; rags, etc., are occasionally mixed in, and the surface is lined 

 with dry blossoms of the horse-chestnut and other flowering plants, the male 

 aments or catkins of oaks, willows, etc., tufts of grasses, pine and sprucQ needles, 

 and mosses of different kinds. These materials are loosely pla,ced on the top of 

 the little platform, which is frequently so small that the extremities of the bird 

 project on both sides, and there is scarcely any depression to keep the eggs from 

 rolling out even in only a moderate windstorm, unless one of the parents sits on 

 the nest, and it is therefore not a rare occurrence to find broken eggs lying 

 under the trees or bushes in which the nests are placed. Some of these are so 

 slightly built that the eggs can be readily seen through the bottom. An average 

 nest measures about 6 inches in outer diameter by 1 J inches in depth. They 

 are rarely placed over 20 feet from the ground, generally from 4 to 8 feet 

 upon horizontal limbs of oak, beech, gum, dogwood, hawthorn, mulberry, pine, 

 cedar, fir, apple, orange, fig, and other trees. "Thick bushes particularly such as 

 are overrun with wild grape and other vines, as well as hedgerows, especially 

 those of osage orange, are also frequently selected for nesting sites. The nests 

 are ordinarily well concealed by the overhanging- and surrounding foliage, and 

 while usually shy and timid at other times, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo is gen- 

 erally courageous and bold in the defense of its chosen home; the bird on the 

 nest not unfrequently will raise its feathers at right angles from the body and 

 occasionally even fly at the intruder. 



The number of eggs in a set varies from two to five; sets of three are 

 most common, while those of four are not at all rare. Now and then as many 

 as six and seven have been found in one nest, but it is always more or less 

 questionable if such large sets are the product of the same female. Usually an 

 egg is deposited daily, and as a rule incubation does not commence until the set 

 is completed; but there are also exceptions, and the bird may commence 

 incubation when the first egg is laid, and at the same time continue laying at 

 irregular intervals, varying from two to eight days, so that one will occasionally 

 find birds of different ages and eggs in various stages of incubation in the nest. 

 I must confess that no such instances have come under my own observation, but 

 this fact has been so well established that there can be no question of it. It is 

 also well known that this species will occasionally deposit an egg or two in the 

 nests of the Black-billed Cuckoo, and the latter returns the compliment, and 



