FAMILY IV. 
AMPHIB OL1 , Illiger. 
GENUS V. — COCCYZUS, Vieill. 
36. COCCYZUS AMERICANUS , BONAPARTE. 
CUCULUS CAROLINENSIS , WILSON. YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 
WILSON, PLATE XXVIII. FIG. I. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
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 traverses the borders 
of deep, retired, high timbered hollows, an uncouth 
guttural sound, or note, resembling the syllables kowe, 
kowe , kowe kowe kowe , beginning slowly, but ending 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 twent}^-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, and apple orchards. 
It leaves us, on its return southward, about the middle 
of September. 
