94 
British Birds. 
The Black-Billed Cuckoo. 
The Yellow-Billed Cuckoo. 
times four Cuckoo's 
eggs being found 
with six of the eggs 
of the last-named 
bird. Lord Lilford 
even gives an in- 
stance of his meet- 
ing with a nest 
which contained 
eight eggs of the 
Great Spotted 
Cuckoo and five of 
a Magpie. 
This species is 
easily recognised by 
its pointed crest, grey colour and buffy throat and neck, as well as by the white- 
tipped quills and upper tail-coverts. The young bird for the most part has the quills 
chestnut, the forehead blackish, and the throat more rufous. 
The two American species which have visited Europe at 
rare intervals are much plainer in colour than our own birds 
and have no bars on the plumage, which is of an olive brown 
colour. They both make nests of their own and lay green or 
bluish eggs. In the bringing-up of the young they are said 
to be most affectionate, and differ in this trait entirely from their European 
representatives. 
The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is distinguished by the orange-yellow colour of the 
lower mandible. It has been met with in Belgium and in Italy, and has occurred 
twice in Ireland, once in Wales, and once on Lundy Island. Its home is in Eastern 
North America, and it also breeds in the West Indies. 
This species and C. amevicanus may be recognised by the 
white tips of the tail-feathers, preceded by a sub-terminal 
band of black, but the Black-billed Cuckoo is further distin- 
guished by the absence of the chestnut lining to the quills. 
It is an inhabitant of North America, and has been once 
observed in Ireland, near Belfast. A specimen has also 
been captured in Italy, near Lucca. 
THE 
YELLOW-BILLED 
CUCKOO. 
(Coccyzus americanus.) 
THE 
BLACK-BILLED 
CUCKOO. 
(Coccyzus 
erythrophthalmus.) 
