YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO 
Called also: Rain Crow 
D O YOU own a cuckoo clock with a little bird 
inside that flies out of a door every hour 
and tells you the time ? Except when it is time to 
go to school or to bed you are doubtless amused 
to hear him hiccough cuckoo, cuckoo, the me- 
chanical notes that tell his name. Cuckoo 
clocks were first made in Europe where the 
common species of cuckoo calls in this way, 
but don’t imagine its American cousins do. 
Our yellow-billed cuckoo’s unmusical, guttural 
notes sound something like a tree toad’s 
rattle, k^ik-kuk, kuk-kuk, kuk-kuk, kr-r~r-uck, kr- 
r-r-ttck, kr-r~r-uck, kr-r-ruck, cow, cow, cow, 
cow! This is his complete “song,” but usually 
one hears only a portion of it. The black- 
billed cuckoo’s voice is softer, and its cow notes 
run together, otherwise their “songs” are alike. 
Both of our common cuckoos are slim, grace- 
ful birds about twelve inches long — longer than 
a robin. They are solitary creatures and glide 
silently among the foliage of trees and shrub- 
bery, rarely giving you . a good look at their 
satiny, grayish-brown backs and dull-white 
20 $ 
