88 
ORNITHOLOGIST 
[Vol. 6-No. 11. 
by i.6o inches in width, and vary but little 
in size but considerable in shape, ranging 
from a rounded oval to pyriform. I am 
inclined to believe that they rear but a sin¬ 
gle brood during a season. 
The Mexican Goshawk is exceedingly 
graceful in all its motions, a swift flyer, re¬ 
sembling the American Goshawk in many 
respects, but it seems to prefer the open 
country more than the latter. I found it 
by no means shy and could have secured 
a number of specimens had I been inclined 
to do so, but I wanted their eggs more than 
the birds themselves. The single male 
killed by me for identification on May 17th, 
1872, measured as follows: wing, 10.25 
inches; tail, 7 inches; length, 16 inches; 
extent of wings, 33 inches. Iris, brown; 
cere and tarsi, yellow; bill, dark blue horn 
color; claws, the same strong and large for 
the size of the bird. It is stated that this 
bird feeds principally on lizards, but al¬ 
though the latter are exceedingly plentiful 
throughout southern Arizona, 1 am satis- j 
fied that small birds form no inconsiderable 
portion of its food. It leaves for its winter ! 
haunts in the commencement ot October. ' 
I 
— Capt. Chas. E. Bendire, U. S. A. 
Our Two Cuckoos 
BREEDING IN ONE NEST. 
May 24th, 1881, I found a pair of Black¬ 
billed Cuckoos {Coccyzus eryt/irophthalmus) 
building a nest in the forks of a small wil- | 
low about three feet from the ground. ' 
The nest was merely a handful of willow 
catkins and was without form. May 25th, | 
visited the nest at 2 P. M.; the bird was on | 
but left as I approached; nest completed 
and contained one egg. May 26th, visited 
nest at ti A. .M.; found bird on; nest con¬ 
tained two eggs, one of which was that of 
the Yellow billed {Coccyzus Ameri- 
catius.) May 27th, called at the nest at 2 30 
P. M.; bird on — four eggs. May 28th, vis¬ 
ited nest at 10 A. .M.; bird at home — four 
eggs. May 29th, called at nest at i P. M.; 
bird absent— four eggs. May 30th, visited 
nest at 4 P. M.; bird absent; found six 
eggs, two of which were those of the Yel¬ 
low-billed species. May 31st, called at the 
nest at 5 P. M.; found bird on, but it left 
in haste as I neared the nest; found 
six eggs. Think this was the Yellow-billed 
species but am not positive. I could al¬ 
ways approach the nest when occupied by 
the Black-bill without giving -her any seri¬ 
ous alarm and in one case I laid my hand 
on the nest before she left. June ist, visit¬ 
ed nest at 12 30 ; bird on, but left as I ap- 
’ proached. I was not able to get near 
enough to identify the species, but think it 
was the Yellow-bill—six eggs. On the 2d 
of June urgent business called me from 
home until June 5th. At 3 P. M. I visited 
the nest and found it empty except frag¬ 
ments of shells. I collected the nest June 11. 
This nest was composed of the woolly 
catkins of the willow, with a few coarse 
twigs and leaf stems of the previous year. 
The measurements were as follows : diam¬ 
eter, about 6 inches; from top to base, 6 
inches; depth of cavity, i inch. The 
Black-billed Cuckoo was first taken by me 
in 1866. For the last ten years it has been 
noticed every year excepting 1879. The 
Yellow-billed Cuckoo was one of our 
earliest birds here. I have known it over 
thirty-five years, but it has been for years 
past growing scarce. It might be well to 
remark that both species are summer resi¬ 
dents.— Dr. H. A. Atkins, Locke, Michigan. 
OoLOGic.'M. Incubation Experiments. 
—For several years Dr. William Wood has] 
been experimenting by hatching Hawk’s 
eggs under domestic fowls to ascertain the 
length of time necessary for each variety 
to hatch. These experiments the doctor 
promises to put in shape for our columns 
Bi.ack-backed 'J'hree-toed Wood¬ 
pecker {Picoides a retie us.) —-Mr. Jason E. 
Nichols, of Lansing, Michigan, reports that 
while out hunting in the northern part of 
that State, in latitude 44, he captured a 
male of the above species of Woodpecker. 
