YELLOW-BILLED AMERICAN CUCKOO. 379 
have of late years been taken in different parts of 
Great Britain and Ireland. One specimen was 
killed on the estate of Lord Cawder, in Wales, 
in 1832, and, we believe, first called attention to 
the fact of its accidental occurrence. Two cap- , 
tured in Ireland came into the possession of Mr 
Ball of Dublin, and were brought before the 
Zoological Society by Mr Thompson of Belfast. 
One or two others have also occurred, but so 
uncertain is it in its appearance, that it can 
only bear the rank of an occasional straggler to 
our shores. For all that we know of its habits, 
we are indebted to Alexander Wilson ; from 
him we learn, that in many parts of the United 
States it is migratory, and that they prefer the 
borders of solitary swamps, and apple orchards. 
The nest is placed on the horizontal branch of a 
tree, and is constructed with little art, and 
scarcely any concavity, of small sticks and twigs, 
intermixed with green weeds and blossoms of the 
common maple. On this are placed the eggs, 
generally four in number, of a uniform greenish 
blue colour. The female sits remarkably close, 
and when roused feigns lameness, fluttering and 
trailing her wings. Their principal food is 
insects and caterpillars, also berries, and they 
are accused with some justice of sucking the eggs 
of other birds.* 
“ All the upper parts of the head and body, 
wings and two middle tail feathers, cinereous 
brown, with a slight tinge of olivaceous ; the 
* Wilson. 
