AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY 



YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO, 

 CUCULUS CASOLIJVEJVSIS. 

 [Plate XXVIIL— -Fig. 1.] 



Cuculus Americanusy Linn. Syst. 170. — Catesb. I, 9.— Lath. I, 537. — Le Coucou de la 

 Caroline, Briss. IV, 112. — Arct. ZooL 265, No. 155.— Pe ale's Museum^ JVo. 1778. 



A STRANGER who visits the United States for the purpose 

 of examining their natural productions^ and passes through our 

 woods in the month of May or June, will sometimes hear, as he 

 traverses the borders of deep retired, high timbered hollows, an un- 

 couth guttural sound or note, resembling the syllables kowe, kowe, 

 koive kowe kowe, beginning slowly, but ending so rapidly that the 

 notes seem to run into each other; and vice versa; he will hear this 

 frequently without being able to discover the bird or animal from 

 which it proceeds, as it is both shy and solitary, seeking always the 

 thickest foliage for concealment. This is the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 

 the subject of the present account. From the imitative sound of 

 its note, it is known in many parts by the name of the Corv-bird; it 

 is also called in Virginia the Eain Croiv, being observed to be most 

 clamorous immediately before rain. 



This species arrives in Pennsylvania from the south about the 

 twenty-second of April, and spreads over the country as far at least 

 as lake Ontario ; is numerous in the Chickasaw and Chactaw na- 

 tions ; and also breeds in the upper parts of Georgia ; preferring 

 in all these places the borders of solitary swamps, and apple or- 



VOL. IV, D 



