24 
HISTORY OF 
of the present account. From the imitative sound of its note, 
it is known in many places by the name of the Cow Bird. It 
is also called, in Virginia, the Rain Crow, being observed to 
be most clamorous immediately before rain.” 
This bird, unlike our common Cuckoo, builds a nest and 
rears its own young. According to Wilson, they pair, in the 
United States, early in May, and, about the tenth, commence 
building in some retired part of a wood. 
Above, the Virginian Cuckoo is of a blueish brown colour, 
with greenish reflections ; below, of a pure white ; centre tail 
feathers, longest, and of the same colour with the back ; lateral 
ones, black tipped with white, and gradually shortened from 
the centre ones ; feet, blueish. The female much resembles 
the male, but may be distinguished by the four centre tail 
feathers being of the same colour as the back, and the white 
not being so pure as in the male. 
Wilson remarks, that, in dissecting this bird, the inner mem- 
brane of the gizzard, which in many other species is hard and 
muscular, in this is extremely loose and soft, capable of great 
distention, and, what is remarkable, covered with a growth of 
fine down or hair of a light fawn colour, which, he suggests, 
may serve to protect them from the irritating effects of the 
hair of certain caterpillars. 
Five or six specimens of this bird appear to have occurred 
in the United Kingdom, of which one was killed on Lord 
Cawdor’s estate in Wales, in 1832. 
