YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 
435 
that so commonly infest the apple-trees, and live in commu- 
nities within a common silky web. They also devour the large 
yellow cockchafer, Carabi, and other kinds of insects, as well 
as various sorts of berries ; but their worst propensity is the 
parasitic habit of sucking the eggs of other birds, thus spread- 
ing ruin and dismay wherever they approach. They hatch 
several broods in a season, and I have seen a nest with eggs in 
it as late as the 2 8th of August ! — though they usually take their 
departure in some part of the month of September. Consid- 
ering the time they are engaged in breeding, they raise but few 
young, appearing to be improvident nurses and bad nest- 
makers, so that a considerable part of their progeny are either 
never hatched, or perish soon after. These birds are greatly 
attached to places where small birds resort, for the sake of 
sucking their eggs ; and I have found it difficult at times to 
eject them, as when their nests are robbed, without much con- 
cern they commence again in the same vicinity, but adding 
caution to their operations in proportion to the persecution 
they meet with. In this way, instead of their exposing the 
nest in some low bush, I have with difficulty met with one at 
least in a tall larch, more than fifty feet from the ground. 
When wholly routed, the male kept up a mournful kow kow 
kbw for several days, appearing now sensible by experience of 
his own predatory practices. 
Careless in providing comfort for her progeny, the Amer- 
ican Cuckoo, like that of Europe, seems at times inclined to 
throw the charge of her offspring on other birds. Approach- 
ing to this habit, I have found an egg of the Cuckoo in the 
nest of a Catbird ; yet though the habitation was usurped, the 
intruder probably intended to hatch her own eggs. At another 
time, on the 15th of June, 1830, I saw a Robin’s nest with two 
eggs in it indented and penetrated by the bill of a bird, and 
the egg of a Cuckoo deposited in the same nest. Both 
birds forsook the premises, so that the object of this forcible 
entry was not ascertained, — though the mere appropriation 
of the nest would seem to have been the intention of the 
Cuckoo. 
