Plate III. 
COCCYZUS E RYTHROPH THALM US— Black-billed Cuckoo. 
There are only three species of the family CucuUdee in North America; two of these, the Black 
and the Yellow-hilled, are common to this state. The former comes from its winter home about the first 
of May ; nidification begins a few weeks later. Only one brood is usually raised during the season. 
LOCALITY: 
The place usually selected for the nest is a wood where there is a thick undergrowth, and where 
the grape, ivy and other climbing vines are found. 
While no particular tree or shrub seems, more than another, adapted to its use, the low, damp 
places near rivers and smaller streams are more likely to be chosen than the high lands, probably owing 
to the greater luxuriance of suitable vegetation near the water-courses. 
POSITION : 
The nest is built either upon a horizontal or in a perpendicular fork of a tree, upon a cluster of 
small branches, the top of a stump, the stems of the stronger climbing vines or a similar position 
affording a suitable resting-place, and is always surrounded by thick foliage. 
Its height varies from one foot to about thirty feet, but is rarely, if ever, found directly upon the 
ground. The nests of low position, are usually built in the perpendicular forking of stunted elms, 
thorns or other small trees. The higher nests are built among the vines. 
MATERIALS : 
The materials of construction are sticks, twigs, thorns, grasses, rootlets, strips of bark, blossoms 
and catkins. 
The sticks are variable in size, and with the thorns form the foundation ; the whole is loosely 
thrown together and is a minature of the hawk’s nest. Catkins of the oak, poplar, etc., or grape 
blossoms, with grasses, weed fibres and rootlets, form the lining and are often worked into the founda- 
tion. Frequently strips of bark, leaves or lichens, are added to the usual twigs, thorns and catkins. 
EGGS: 
The complement of eggs is from two to five, usually four. They are of a light bluish-green color 
when blown, sometimes mottled with a darker shade, and vary exceedingly in shape; some are elliptical 
while others only approach that form, and have an average measurement of 1.12 x .83. 
They are usually deposited one every day, but quite an interval may elapse, so that young birds 
and almost fresh eggs may be found in the same nest. 
DIFFERENTIAL POINTS: 
The nests and eggs of the Yellow and Black-billed Cuckoos resemble each other closely, and it is 
not always possible to differentiate the two. Nests of the former are often found which could not be 
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