YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 
RAIN CROW. 
CoCCYZUS AMERICANUS. 
Char. Upper mandible and tip of lower, black j rest of lower mandi- j 
ble and cutting edges of upper, yellow. Upper parts olive, with a slight 
metallic gloss, tinged with ash toward the bill ; wings tinged with*rufous ; 1 
middle feathers of tail like back, remainder black tipped with white ; ^ 
beneath, white or creamy. Length about 12 inches. ' 
Nest. In a thicket by the side of a stream or on the border of a 
swamp ; placed in a bush or low tree. A flat, frail affair made of twigs j 
loosely laid, sometimes lined with bark strips or grass. I 
Eggs. 2-6 (usually 4) ; pale dull green or bluish green; 1.25 X 0.90. i 
The American Cuckoo arrives in the middle and colder ( 
States of the Union about the close of April or the first week ' 
of May, and proceeds to the north as far as Nova Scotia. , 
It probably winters in Mexico, and intlividuals pass no farther j 
than the forests of Louisiana. We also met with it in the I 
remote Territory of Oregon. Latham speaks of these birds 
also as inhabitants of the tropical island of Jamaica. They 
delight in the shady retirement of the forest, and are equally 
common in tall thickets and orchards, where, like piratical , 
prowlers, they skulk and hide among the thickest boughs ; and 
although, unlike the European Cuckoo, they are faithfully paired, 
yet the pair are seldom seen in the same tree, but, shy and 
watchful, endeavor to elude everything like close observation. 
