ACCOMPLISHED VOCALISTS. 85 



I have long since learned who plays the " kettle- 

 drum " of the bird orchestra ; he is the black-billed 

 cuckoo {Gocoyzus erythrophthahwus) a long, lithe, 

 pigeonlike creature, who is subject to nervous attacks 

 after a prolonged silence, and lets oil the following : 



t PDco r-itard. ~- But the black - billed 



rrrrp P rrrf"rf • cuckoo does not confine 

 Cat-ucucuc-oo-ooco-o ca-ocoaj himself to exactly this ar- 

 rangement of his two notes. Sometimes he sings thus : 



It is also not quite fair to 



I 



J J J J' JJ' 



liken him to a noisy drum- 



onant than that of the tubby kettledrum, and as a 

 musician he is the soul of accuracy in his musical 

 thirds and fourths. But the mention of this reminds 

 me of the musical attempts of the crow. I wonder 

 how many of us have caught the crow in the act of 

 coughing up a number of musical tones ! It is the 

 most absurd performance in all the category of wild 

 music. The crow when he sings is nothing short of 

 a clown. He ruffles his feathers, stretches his neck 

 like a cat with a fishbone in her throat, and with a 

 most tremendous effort delivers a series of henlike 

 squawks double J'ortissimo, thus : > 



What he means by the call [ "•j)*^ J * J=^ 

 it is difficult to say, unless it has ' \J' ■■ 

 some connection with the general "caucus" which 



