4 
YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 
insects constitute the chief part of their own sustenance. They 
are accused, and with some justice, of sucking the eggs of 
other birds, like the Crow, the Blue Jay, and other pillagers. 
They also occasionally eat various kinds of berries. But, 
from the circumstance of destroying such numbers of very 
noxious larvse, they prove themselves the friends of the 
farmer, and are highly deserving of his protection. 
The Yellow-billed Cuckoo is thirteen inches long, and 
sixteen inches in extent ; the whole upper parts are of a dark 
glossy drab, or what is usually called a quaker colour, with 
greenish silky reflections ; from this must, however, be 
excepted the inner vanes of the wings, which are bright 
reddish cinnamon ; the tail is long, composed of ten feathers, 
the two middle ones being of the same colour as the back, 
the others, which gradually shorten to the exterior ones, are 
black, largely tipt with white ; the two outer ones are scarcely 
half the length of the middle ones. The whole lower parts 
are pure white ; the feathers covering the thighs being large, 
like those of the Hawk tribe ; the legs and feet are light blue, 
the toes placed two before and two behind, as in the rest of 
the genus. The bill is long, a little bent, very broad at the 
base, dusky black above, and yellow below ; the eye hazel, 
feathered close to the eyelid, which is yellow. The female 
differs little from the male ; the four middle tail-feathers in 
her are of the same uniform drab ; and the white, with which 
the others are tipt, not so pure as in the male. 
In examining this bird by dissection, the inner membrane 
of the gizzard, which in many other species is so hard and 
muscular, in this is extremely lax and soft, capable of great 
distension ; and, what is remarkable, is covered with a growth 
of fine down, or hair, of a light fawn colour. It is difficult to 
ascertain the particular purpose which Nature intends by this 
excrescence ; perhaps it may serve to shield the tender parts 
from the irritating effects produced by the hairs of certain 
caterpillars, some of which are said to be almost equal to the 
sting of a nettle. 
