YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 



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tenance. They are accused, and with some justice, of sucking the 

 eggs of other birds, like the Crow, the Blue Jay, and other pillagers. 

 They also occasionally 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. 



The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is thirteen inches long, and six- 

 teen inches in extent; the whole upper parts are of a dark glossy 

 drab, or what is usually called a Quaker color, with greenish 

 silky reflections ; from this must however be excepted the inner 

 vanes of the wings, which are bright reddish cinnamon; the tail 

 is long, composed of ten feathers, the two middle ones being of 

 the same color as the back, the others, which gradually shorten 

 to the exterior ones, are black, largely tipt with white ; the two 

 outer ones are scarcely half the length of the middle ones. The 

 whole lower parts are pure white; the feathers covering the thighs 

 being large, like those of the Hawk tribe; the legs and feet are light 

 blue, the toes placed two before and two behind as in the rest of the 

 genus. The bill is long, a little bent, very broad at the base, dusky 

 black above and yellow below ; the eye hazel, feathered close to the 

 eyelid, which is yellow. The female differs little from the male; 

 the four middle tail-feathers in her are of the same uniform drab; 

 and the white, with which the others are tipt, not so pure as in the 

 male. 



In examining this bird by dissection the inner membrane of 

 the gizzard, which in many other species is so hard and muscular, 

 in this is extremely lax and soft, capable of great distension ; and, 

 what is remarkable, is covered with a growth of fine down or hair, 

 of a light fawn color. It is difficult to ascertain the particular pur- 

 pose which nature intends by this excrescence ; perhaps it may 

 serve to shield the tender parts from the irritating effects produced 

 by the hairs of certain caterpillars, some of which are said to be 

 almost equal to the sting of a nettle. 



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