120 



BIRDS OP PENNSYLVANIA. 



winters occur in Louisiana, some individuals remain there, not finding 

 it necessary to go farther south. They feed on insects, such as cater- 

 pillars and butterflies, as well as on berries of many kinds, evincing a 

 special prediliction for the mulberry. In autumn they eat many 

 grapes. They now and then descend to the ground to pick up a wood- 

 snail or a beetle." 



According to Wilson the diet of this species consists for the most 

 part of caterpillars, particularly such as infest apple trees. They also 

 eat various kinds of berries. But from the circumstance of destroying 

 such numbers of very noxious larvae, they prove themselves the 

 friends of the farmer and are highly deserving of his protection." 



388. Coccyzus erythrophthalmus (WiLS.). 



Black-billed Cuckoo. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Bill entirely black ; upper parts generally of a metallic greenish-olive, ashy to- 

 wards the base of the bill ; beneath pure-white, with a brownish-yellow tinge on 

 the throat ; inner webs of the quills tinged with cinnamon ; under surface of all the- 

 tail feathers hoary ash-gray ; all except the central, on either side, suffused with 

 darker to the short, bluish-white, and not well-defined tip ; a naked redskin around 

 the eye ; iris brown. 



Length about 12 inches; extent about 16 ; wing, 5 ; tail, 6.50. 



Hab. Eastern North America, from Labrador and Manitoba south to the West 

 Indies and the valley of the Amazon ; west to the Rocky mountains. Accidental in 

 the British Islands and Italy. 



This species is found in Pennsylvania only as a summer resident. 

 It arrives generally a few days after the Yellow-billed has made it& 

 appearance, and returns to its southern winter resorts about two weeks, 

 Audubon says, earlier than the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 



In February, 1885, 1 saw several of these birds in the Florida orange 

 orchards. The nest, a frail structure of twigs, bark, and in some in- 

 stances blossoms of different plants, is placed on a low tree or bush. 

 The eggs, usually two or four, are mostly a trifle smaller and darker 



