GENUS 20. cue ULUS CUCKOO* 
SPECIES 1. CUCULUS CJlROLINENSIS. 
YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 
[Plate XXVIIL— Fig. 1.] 
Cuculus Jimericttiius, Linn. Syst. ed. 10, p. Ill — Catesb. i, 9. — 
Lath. I, 537. — Le Coucou de la Caroline. Briss. iv, 112. — 
Jirct. Zool, 265, JVo. 155. — Peai.e’s Museum, No. 1778. 
A STRANGER who visits the United States for the purpose 
of examining their natural productions, and passes through our 
woods in the month of May or June, will sometimes hear, as 
he ti’averses the borders of deep, retired, high timbered hol- 
lows, an uncouth guttural sound or note, resembling the sylla- 
bles kowe, kowe, kowe kowe kowe! beginning slowly, but end- 
ing so rapidly, that the notes seem to run into each other, and 
vice versa; he will hear this frequently without being able to 
discover the bird or animal from which it proceeds, as it is 
both shy and solitary, seeking always the thickest foliage for 
concealment. This is the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, the subject of 
the present account. From the imitative sound of its note, it is 
known in many parts by the name of the Cow-bird; it is also 
called in Virginia the Rain-Crow, being observed to be most 
clamorous immediately before rain. 
This species arrives in Pennsylvania, from the south, about 
the twenty-second of April, and spreads over the country as 
far at least as lake Ontario; is numerous in the Chickasaw and 
Chactaw nations; and also breeds in the upper parts of Georgia; 
preferring in all these places the borders of solitary swamps, 
Tliis genus has been considerably restricted by recent ornithologists. 
The two species referred by Wilson to their genus belong to the genus Coc- 
cycus of Vieillot, adopted by Temminck. 
